1878 5c PR DCAM

Key to Collecting: With a mintage of just 2,350 “Proofs” and no circulation strikes, this is one of the rarest issues in the series. Nearly all Proofs are somewhat lustrous rather than deeply mirrorlike. It is an interesting debate whether pieces should be called Proofs because they were called that by the Mint and sold as Proofs to collectors, or whether they should be called Uncirculated, for they appear to be in the latter grade. Tradition dictates the Proof classification. The 1878 nickel usually has very attractive eye appeal.

Characteristics and Appearance: The strike is usually excellent on this issue. Many are from unpolished or incompletely polished dies, with mint luster or a combination of satiny luster and semi-prooflike surface. Few are deeply mirrored Proofs.

Walter Breen’s Encyclopedia of United States and Colonial Proof Coins (1979) states that a single die pair was used for this coinage, and that the “rare earliest state has shaft of 7 in lower loop of last 8.” This information is also found in the 1988 edition of Breen. Peters and Mohon (1995) wrote that “Experts do not agree that a genuine ‘overdate’ of this date exists.”

Five obverse dies were made, but most remained unused. On the Internet, “low grade 1873 Close 3 nickels are often presented as impaired Proof 1878 nickels.”27

Mintage and Distribution Notes: All 1878 Shield nickels were distributed as part of the year’s minor Proof sets, which also included the Indian Head cent and the nickel three-cent piece. Some of these were distributed with the silver Proof sets. This is the first year for which the mintage figure is definitely known for a minor Proof set. Perhaps a circulation issue was envisioned, as five obverse dies are known to have been destroyed. R.W. Julian suggests that the large mintage for 1878 Proofs, in comparison to the number made in 1877, was from “demand from speculators, accelerated by the fact that 1877 nickels had been sold out by the end of that year.”28