SPOKANE – A Spokane businessman is hoping to get millions of dollars by selling a nickel: A rare 1913 Liberty Head nickel.
Bruce Morelan bought the coin, one of only five known to exist, nearly two years ago. He plans to auction it on Tuesday in Orlando, Fla., to raise money to buy other rare coins.
Morelan said the coin has spent the past two years in a bank vault in Spokane.
“I would never keep anything like that at home,” said Morelan, chief executive officer of Sesco Northwest, a major electrical contractor.
Morelan, 45, paid $4.15 million for the coin, and hopes to sell it for up to $6 million, as the market for rare coins has climbed, he said.
“No 1913 has ever sold for less than it was purchased for,” Morelan said. “If you know what you are doing and have patience, you can do quite well with rare coins.”
The five rare Liberty Head nickels were minted in Philadelphia 1913 under mysterious circumstances. They were made, possibly illegally by mint employees, just as the transition was being made from the Liberty Head to the Buffalo nickel.
The five coins were kept together until the 1940s, when they were split up.
“They were never circulated,” Morelan said.
Tens of millions of Liberty Head nickels were struck from 1883 to 1912. They featured a representation of “Miss Liberty” on the front and the Roman numeral “V,” or 5, on the back.
The government switched to the Buffalo nickel, which depicts an Indian on one side and a bison on the other, in 1913.
Of the five known Liberty Head nickels, two are in museums and three are in private collections. Morelan used to own one of the others, and sold it.
The nickel he owns is considered the finest specimen of the five, and in 1996 it became the first coin to sell for more than $1 million.
The nickel is known as the Eliasberg Collection specimen, after one of its previous owners, and is considered one of the most famous coins in existence, according to documents for the auction.
Morelan is a well-known figure in the coin collection industry, and said he is motivated more by interest than money.
“I am primarily a collector,” he said. “I like the experience of owning great rarities.”
Morelan, who has collected coins since he was a child, is a nuclear engineer by training and a former Navy officer. He once worked at the Hanford nuclear reservation in the Tri-Cities before going into business for himself.
The auction will occur at the Renaissance Hotel at Sea World in Orlando, and be handled by Stack’s, a rare coin dealer. Bidders can participate in person, or by Internet, mail, or telephone.
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