[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

If I remember my history, earlier the Gov’t produced a similar five cent coin without the word “cents” on it.

An enterprising young man had lots of them gold plated, headed west and went into a saloon pointed to a sign for a five cent beer, drank it, handed the bartender a gold plated nickle, and received $4.95 back.
He later got caught, his defense was he was deaf and mute and merely pointed at the 5 cent beer sign, and it was not his fault the bartender took his nickle gave him back $4.95.

[hanamizu]

If I remember my history, earlier the Gov’t produced a similar five cent coin without the word “cents” on it.

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You remember correctly. What most don’t know, is that quarter eagle ($5) gold piece of the time was the same size and had pretty much the same obverse as the Liberty head nickel. The V on the back seemed to reinforce the idea that the gold-plated nickel was in fact a $5 gold piece. The government of the time moved pretty quickly when they found out what was happening. The word ‘cents’ was added to the design within months.