The Buffalo Nickel series are some of the most popular coins to collect. The 1926-S Buffalo Nickel had the lowest mintage in the entire Buffalo Nickel series, with 970,000 coins produced.
In 1879, the U.S. Mint resumed making Shield Nickels after only producing proof coins in 1877 and 1878. The Mint significantly reduced the number of Shield Nickels made in 1879, producing only about 25,900 coins.
The 1880 Shield Nickel had the lowest mintage of any coin in the Shield Nickel series. Only about 16,000 Shield Nickels were made in 1880 and very few have survived today.
The 1885 Liberty Head Proof nickel is rare because fewer than 4,000 were made. However, since the 1885 Liberty Head proof nickels were sold to collectors, a number of them have survived.
In 1877 and 1878, only proof versions of the Shield Nickel were made. The 1877 proofs are rarer, but there were only about 2,350 Shield Nickel proofs made in 1878.
The 1867 Shield Nickel Proof with Rays is the rarest proof in the Shield Nickel series. The total number of Shield Nickel proofs with rays from 1867 is unknown.
The 1913 Liberty Nickel is not only the rarest nickel in the world, it is one of the most valuable coins ever. There are only five known 1913 Liberty Nickels and in May 2007, one was sold for nearly $5 million!
The 1877 Shield Nickel Proof with No Rays is rare because only proof coins of this nickel were produced that year.
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