Humble nickel from 1913 likely to fetch millions

RICHMOND, Va. – A humble 5-cent coin with a storied past is headed to auction and bidding is expected to top $2.5 million a century after it was minted.

The 1913 Liberty Head nickel is one of only five known to exist, but it’s the coin’s back story that adds to its cachet: It was surreptitiously and illegally cast, discovered in a car wreck, declared a fake, forgotten in a closet and then found to be the real deal.

It will be on the auction block April 25 in suburban Chicago.