BLIND MAN'S NICKEL PATTERNS

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V21 2018 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 21, Number 45, November 11, 2018, Article 10

Rich Giedroyc's Coin Clinic column in the November 20, 2018 Numismatic News mentions the "blind man's nickel" patterns. Here's some more information from an article on the NGC message boards. -Editor

Most of us remember the 2006 ruling by U.S. District Judge James Robertson in a lawsuit filed by the American Council of the Blind that claims the U.S. Department of Treasury is violating the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 with its paper money, right?

Well, way back in 1882 the United State Mint was considering a special pattern nickel, now known as the “Blind Man’s Nickel.” Under the auspices of William Barber, one of the mint’s designers, George T. Morgan produced a handful of some proof Liberty nickels and Shield nickels with an edge that had five raised bars spaced at regular intervals so that the blind could determine by the touch, its denomination. These coins were never released for circulation but the few that were struck did indeed find their way into collectors hands.

The "Blind Man's Nickel" has long been a favorite of pattern collectors, both due to its extreme rarity and its highly unusual edge device. Two such Nickel designs were struck; one being the Shield Nickel design, the other, also struck bearing the date 1882 is of a Liberty Head design, similar to the adopted design but bearing the obverse legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA rather than stars. According to John Haseltine in his sale of March 1, 1883, these Nickels were "designed for the use of the blind" and that these "bold ridges" were placed "on the edge so that the blind could determine by the touch its denomination." Apparently, the need for such a coin was deemed to not be sufficient, nor was the idea practical to carry over into other denominations, not to mention that the raised bars along the edge also posed potential jamming problem for the coin presses.

J1683/P1883 Copper-nickel Only 3 were struck according to the addenda in Haseltine's March 1883 sale. At least 3 are in fact known today.

Only 3 are confirmed including the Mitchelson-Connecticut State Library and Harry W. Bass Jr. Research Foundation pieces and the illustrated example which is from Bowers and Merena's October 2000 sale. The latter is probably the Judd coin as well.

To read the complete article, see:
1882 Blind Man’s Nickel (https://www.ngccoin.com/boards/topic/145547-1882-blind-man%E2%80%99s-nickel/)

E-Sylum supporter Julian Leidman has one for sale in his eBay store. -Editor

Nicknamed the "blind man's nickel", the edge of this coin has five equally spaced bars to distinguish it's denomination.

The NGC article concludes, "I could not find one single image of the edge, go figure." Me neither. Can anyone point us to images of the coins' edges? Thanks. Meanwhile, I reached out to reader Tom Babinszki, author of the Blind Coin Collector blog. -Editor

I’ve been researching this topic, but I have never heard about these U.S. patterns. Though I have to say, I didn’t even assume that money identification existed for the blind over a hundred years ago.

Unfortunately the one on eBay is outside of my spending range, though I would be happier with one without a holder.

Julian Leidman said he'd bring his piece to our Nummis Nova dinner on Tuesday. I'll tease him about breaking the Proof-64 pattern out of its slab before passing it around the table. -Editor