Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe NEW ORLEANS, May 21 (UPI) -- A 1913 Liberty Head V nickel sold for $3 million Friday in New Orleans, doubling the previous record for the retail sale of a coin, also set by a Liberty Head. Only five 1913 Liberty Heads were minted, and two are in museums and unavailable to collectors, the Times-Picayune reported. Advertisement Bruce Smith, the dealer who brokered the sale, would not identify the buyer or the seller. "In our industry, this is it," Smith said. "You could very well argue that this is the most important coin." King Farouk of Egypt and Jerry Buss, who owns the Los Angeles Lakers, are two of the coin's previous owners. Liberty Head nickels were common currency from 1883 to 1912, but five were illegally produced in Philadelphia in 1913, just before the official design of the nickel was to change.
