Kkk Hobo Nickel

Wow, I'm sure there is a market for such a coin however like paralyze suggested, you're gonna have a heck of a time trying to sell it especially via a public venue. Even nazi stuff is a tuff sell most places and that stuff has Broad appeal due to militaria collectors. I'm guessing most auction houses, lage & small won't touch it. It's not something I would want in my collection but to each their own.

For better or worse it's a piece of American history. If it were mine, I'd do a little research to find a highly respected American history university professor that specializes in civics or race relations. I bet they'd want to see it and possibly could tell you more about it if it were a member identification type piece

It would carry a nice premium, most Klan tokens do, but I would keep it for it's historical value. The stigma around historical artifacts is absurd. From my experience, the best place to buy/sell/trade/find such items are "gun and coin" shops.

Very true, OldSkool. I think it depends on your location. A Klansman in, say, Portland, Oregon would be far less likely to advertise that fact to a random stranger than one in the deepest Carolinas or Mississippi.

I live in Texas and still remember, growing up, my kindergarten teacher's husband had a Forrest KKK sword above the fireplace mounted in front of his Rebel flag, and he was once almost jailed for greeting his daughter's new boyfriend with a sawed-off 12 gauge named Shorty, on the occasion that he was African-American (which would have made him the endless target of jokes among his truck-driver buddies, and probably socially scandalized his wife, who was very active in the deb/ball and dance scene.) Even having more socially liberal parents, they didn't seem to mind using the N word on occasion, or admonishing me about being careful if I am playing at the house of the "colored kids" across the street.

Of course, a lot has changed even here in 30 years, and any remnants of that particular ideology have been driven deep underground, as it has gone from being marginally socially acceptable to being something that would probably cost you your job and your reputation, especially since that small town, once 95% white, is now almost 70% non-white, and doing better than ever.

My grandma's fourth (!) husband was a Luftwaffe oberst who flew Junkers and Heinkel bombers with the Condor Legion and Afrika Korps for the Third Reich. Upon her passing, he moved out of their big old house and headed for a trailer on the beach. I was 22 and about to get married and while going through her things and preparing to sell the house I came across a box full of Third Reich medals, pins, and ribbons. Being as her first two husbands were American veterans (a Pacific Theater fighter pilot and a young man who survived Normandy, respectively) this wouldn't do at all. So with the blessing of my ma & pa I unloaded all of it on ebay, hand-writing my own listings, and editing out the Swastikas in photoshop as required to list the items, and they all sold extremely quickly. I received about $2,200, which financed my honeymoon in Vegas when I got married later that year. Most of the items sold to Spain, Argentina, Brazil, but not Germany, where they were banned. Of course, later on in life, I realized I had probably let about $10k worth of stuff go, including some particular medals struck in silver with less than a hundred copies known to exist. I also inherited a cigar-box full of German coins, which I still have.

At any rate, the market is there for KKK stuff, just as it is for Third Reich, and the buyers are usually quite eager to have at it, but I am not sure that ebay would be nearly as friendly towards such listings as they were in 2003.

Best piece out of the lot I sold was a Spanish Cross in silver w/swords, which brought almost $700, complete w/presentation box. Nowadays that's a $2.5k+ piece. I had several NSDAP & HJ pins w/numbers, shooting badge, wound badges, parachute badges, 4 Iron Crosses (1st/2nd class), ribbon bars, etc. Only thing I kept was a 1930s vintage German metal pill box that some of the items were stored in.

I think that a collector of KKK memorabilia would buy this nickel, for sure, as Cascade points out, but if you don't mind the stigma, it's quite a conversation starter.

Also these historical items remind us that Voldemort in Harry Potter isn't jsut made up evil, but there were truly bad people in our own past as well and gives chance chance for reflection.

I just have a curious quesiton about this. the "no advertising" allowed on coins rule, since this is a known organization, does this coin fit that the design would have constituted advertising or is that only for stickers and such affixed to coins?