The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 22, June 1, 2003, Article 5

NEW 1913 LIBERTY NICKEL PUBLICITY

  W. David Perkins writes: "B. Max Mehl's offer just got
  topped, from $50 to $1 Million for a 1913 Liberty Head
  Nickel (Five Cent Piece):

  [David sent a copy of an article from USA Today dated
  May 27, 2003, titled "Liberty Head or tail, you win
  $1 million" -Editor]

  "A New Hampshire coin dealer is offering $1 million for
  a 1913 Liberty Head nickel that has been missing for at
  least 40 years.  In 1913, the Buffalo or Indian nickel
  replaced the Liberty Head, but five illegally minted 1913
  Liberty Heads surfaced in the 1920s.  Two are in private
  collections and two are in museums, but the fifth is
  unaccounted for.

   "It's all about trying to find the coin," says Paul
  Montgomery, president of Bowers & Merena Galleries
  of Wolfeboro, N.H., which is offering the reward."

  [It was only a matter of time before someone resurrected
  Mehl's publicity gambit, but the missing 5th nickel is a
  new twist.    And as with all widely-published accounts of
  rare coins, they draw a lot of crazy stories out of the
  woodwork.   An Associated Press story out of Bend,
  Oregon recounts the story of a man who claims to have
  had the missing nickel at one time.

  "If John Finney is right, no one will ever claim the million-
  dollar bounty offered by a New Hampshire coin dealer
  for a rare 1913 Liberty Head nickel.

  The Bend, Oregon man believes the coin vanished under
  tons of concrete when his mother's girlhood home in Sparks,
  Nevada was razed in the early 1960s to make way for a
  freeway overpass.

  Finney says his uncle, Geno Questa, began collecting coins
  as a youngster and obtained the nickel in the 1920s. He says
  Questa hid the coin in the home from his seven brothers and
  sisters. But when he went to get it, it was gone.

  Finney's mother, Evelyn, says she remembers finding it as a
  little girl. She thinks she may have splurged on ice cream."

  For the full story, see:
  http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1297619&nav=8faOG4ao

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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