FLORIDA (Commodity Online): A rare U.S. nickel that was owned over the years by an infamous Egyptian King and a Los Angeles sports team owner, and was the centerpiece in an episode of a popular television series, is expected to sell for $3 million or more in an auction in Orlando, Florida on January 6, 2010. The little coin with the big value is a 1913-dated Liberty Head nickel, one of only five known of that specific date and design.

It's always exciting for collectors when a 1913 Liberty nickel comes on the market, and this one should bring $3 million or higher. It is probably the most famous United States rare coin and certainly the world's most famous nickel because it was seen by tens of millions of viewers in an episode of 'Hawaii Five-O', said Greg Rohan, President of Dallas-based Heritage Auctions (www.HA.com), the firm conducting the auction online and in Orlando at a coin collector's convention.

In the 1940's this coin was in the collection of the notorious King Farouk of Egypt who was deposed in 1952. In December 1973 it was prominently featured in an episode of the TV series, 'Hawaii Five-O,' entitled 'The $100,000 Nickel.' Los Angeles Lakers owner, Dr. Jerry Buss, paid $200,000 for the coin in 1978, and it changed hands several times since then, crossing the million dollar mark in 2003. The current owner who consigned it to the auction wants to remain anonymous, said Rohan.

The U.S. Mint struck tens of millions of Liberty Head nickels from 1883 through 1912, but switched designs in 1913 to depict a Native American on the 'head's' side and a bison on the 'tail's' side. However, five nickels with the new date, 1913, but the old design of the symbolic Miss Liberty secretly were made at the Philadelphia Mint and eventually sold to collectors.

One of the five fabled 1913 Liberty nickels is in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC; another belongs to the American Numismatic Association (ANA) Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado; and the three others, including the coin in the January auction, are privately owned by collections. (Courtesy: PRWeb)

Egypt Florida U.S.