The 1869 Shield Nickel is very common as the mintage is quite high, at over 16 million, making it a great type coin. Easily accessible in all grades until MS67 where it becomes quite scarce. This issue is known to have obverse die cracks and weakly struck stars although there are a fair amount of nice examples out there.
| coinage-type | Shield nickel |
| desg | MS |
| designer | James B. Longacre |
| diameter | 20.5 |
| edge | Plain |
| material | 75% copper; 25% nickel |
| mintage | 16,395,000 |
| ngc-id | 22P3 |
| obverse-description | A shield flanked on the left and right by leaves topped with a cross with arrows positioned behind at the bottom so the arrow heads and shanks protrude at the sides. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST appears at the top periphery with the date positioned at the bottom center. |
| pcgs-link | 3796 |
| pcgs-number | 3796 |
| reverse-description | A large numeral 5 surrounded by 13 stars centered in the design with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA * CENTS around the periphery. |
| weight-grams | 5 |
| year-display | 1867-1883 |