Shield Nickel of 1880 Once Bought Lunch
1880 Shield nickel. (Images courtesy usacoinbook.com.)
The Shield nickel has to be about the least studied and least collected coin of the United States. In part that seems to be the situation for the nickel in general. Back in the 1950s, the Jefferson nickel was hotly collected and the Buffalo nickel was not far behind. The Shield nickel just didn’t seem to register as a popular design even then. The composition has been the same since 1866, so no changes in the alloy can account for popularity or lack thereof. Why there has never been much attention given the Shield nickel is an interesting question.
The Shield nickel might suffer in popularity partially because of the design. It is not a bad design, it is just a design without anything special. In fact, it is one of the few designs in American history that does not have some living thing. There is no Liberty, Native American, president or bird, and maybe people do not like that. The Shield nickel was also relatively short-lived, having been produced first in 1866, with its last production being in 1883. As none was produced at branch mints, it is a rather small collection.
Perhaps it is just a combination of all the factors of being a small collection of an ordinary design and perhaps worst of all being a nickel at a time when collectors seemingly want only large silver and gold coins.
Of course, if you limit yourself to large silver and gold coins, you are going to miss some fascinating and potentially great coins along the way.
One of those coins is the 1880 nickel. By 1880 people were not exactly parading in front of the Treasury demanding nickels. The total production was a rather modest 16,000 business strikes and 3,955 proofs. Nor were those the production levels for the first hour. That was the total for the year, an almost comical number by the standards of today. The Mint can sell more quarter bags in a day online than there are 1880 Shield nickels. The mintage figures are just part of the story. We can assume that most collectors in 1880 simply acquired a proof example for their collections because that was the pattern at the time. Moreover, they were tough economic times, so how many of the proofs survived in their original state is another question. Even if they survived the 1880s, there have been plenty of other tough times since to reduce the supply.
Why would someone have saved a new 1880 nickel when you could have gotten a glass of beer and a free lunch with it at a local saloon? Nowadays it takes a pocketful (well, OK, say 15) Anthony dollars to get a beer and lunch. So you can see what kind of purchasing power the nickel had in 1880.
We really do not know how many 1880 Shield nickels could have survived to the present day. The current price of $1,900 in G-4 suggests that there is some demand. A PF-65 example lists at only $550, which has to rank as perhaps the smallest premium for a PF-65 over a G-4.
The real rarity of the 1880 Shield nickel, however, is a business strike MS-63, which currently lists at $24,000. That further suggests that the collectors back in 1880 saved few.
It is a fascinating coin whatever the grade as you have to figure with a mintage of less than 20,000 pieces, getting an 1880 Shield nickel for under $1,000 in PF-65 must be better than spending the same money for bags of quarters.
