1872 Shield Nickel

The story of the 1872

Philadelphia ramped up hard in 1872: 6,036,000 coins, about 11 times the 1871 run. In 1873 the figure was 4.5 million.

No other mint struck it for circulation that year, so every 1872 you find is from Philadelphia.

Across Philadelphia's 17 Shield Nickel issues, the hardest to find is the 1880 with 16,000 made. The 1872 is one of the easier ones. No Shield Nickel of the 1870s had a bigger run.

High output then a glut (1868 to 1872)

With the rays gone, the Mint struck nearly 29 million nickels in each of 1867 and 1868 and another 16.4 million in 1869. The market was soon flooded with minor coins. In 1871 Congress allowed the redemption of surplus nickels and cents, sending large numbers back to the Treasury. Production fell to 4.8 million in 1870 and to only 561,000 in 1871, the low point of this period and a scarce date today.

The hard alloy still caused trouble, so many coins from these years show die cracks, clashing or a weak strike on the leaves and the cross. Repunched dates are common. Specialists attribute them by die. The 1872 recovered somewhat at 6 million. Survivors from 1868 and 1869 are plentiful, often worn to Fine or Very Fine, while uncirculated 1871 nickels are hard to find.

Production was huge at first because the nickel was meant to replace paper five-cent notes in circulation. Within a few years banks and merchants had more nickels than they needed and the Mint had no easy way to take the excess back, so output fell sharply after 1869. Coins of these years often show die cracks and weak stars, because the hard copper-nickel alloy wore dies out quickly.