1883 Liberty Nickel .

That could be a racketeer nickel or be plated to look like a racketeer nickel. Supposedly the "Cents" was added later in 1883 to prevent people from gold plating them and passing them off as half eagles.

That's so cooooooool!
I have always wanted one of them, any idea how much they are worth?
Also does it need the reeding to be a real racketeer nickel?

HOLLY GUACAMOLE ! read what I found ?!

1883-Liberty-Racketeer-Nickel
Notice the word "Cents" does not appear on this version.

The 1883 "No Cent" Liberty nickel: Shopkeepers ask... was it worth 5¢ or $5?

The 1883 coins are perhaps the most famous "errors" in U.S. history. The error was so shocking and so bone-headed that for more than 120 years, people have been asking "What were they thinking?"

Here's what happened. When the Mint introduced a new Nickel in 1883, the designers actually forgot to include the word "Cents" on the coin. This bumbling error proved very costly to unsuspecting Americans. The Nickel is about the same size as a $5 gold coin, and crooks -- or "racketeers" -- realized the U.S. Mint had given them the perfect way to make money.

5¢ Magically Becomes $5!

With a simple layer of gold, the 1883 "No Cents" Nickel suddenly became America's "new" $5 gold coin. As the swindle became more widespread, the red-faced U.S. Mint quickly added the word "Cents" to the design ... but not before an outraged public had been scammed. At this time, $5 was the average weekly wage.

The original 1883 "No Cents" Nickel was made for only a few weeks and is one of the shortest-lived designs in history. The U.S. government tried to destroy all the "racketeer" Nickels and hoped the public would soon forget this dark moment in coinage history. But the coin has been in the news for more than 120 years and continues to haunt the Mint to this day.

"I Was Just Joshing You"

The U.S. government tried to prosecute "racketeers" who used gold-plated 1883 "No Cents" Nickels as $5 gold coins. The most famous case involved Josh Tatum, a deaf mute who goldplated over 1,000 Nickels. His lawyers argued that since he never "told" anyone they were $5 coins, the unsuspecting shopkeepers came to that conclusion on their own ... and he evaded prosecution. Josh had a reputation as a joker, and the phrase "to josh" entered the English language as a result of this case!

Thanks to Collectors Alliance for the information.

Fun coin ... I suspect this is most likely a modern version of the infamous gold-plated nickel ... but pleased that you had an opportunity to learn about the shenanigans that were being played out in 1883.

Wondering why this coin is posted in the Modern US Coin forum? It belongs elsewhere (Classic US coins) so we can keep the forums straight.

Anyways ... thanks for sharing the photos.

David

i wonder if you could take off the gold with that electricfier thing. It wouldn't hurt the coin and the coin may be worth more without the gold.

Fiction



All complete fiction. There were no prosecutions, no Josh Tatum, and the word josh meaning to trick fool or joke with dates from the 1830's.

While some of the Racketeer nickels were reported to have been reeded, that doesn't mean they all were. As for this being a recent fabrication, How many people would take a Mint State 1883 nickel and gold plate it today? Back in 1883 when they were only worth a nickel sure. But in the few decades? I doubt it. That's why the typical "racketeer nickel" that you see is a gold plated Good - VG.

I don't think all the racketeer nickel have reading in the rim edge ! Just look at the one posted on this site where they sold out of them
http://www.govmint.com/item/The-Rac...l/1801433/11
plus say things like " must be in average circulation condition to be a real fake jt or racketeer is just silly in my opinion !

In almost forty years of collecting I have seen several variations of this story, with josh having been tried in several different cities. I have seen contemporary reports of merchants being taken by the coins or warning to watch to avoid getting taken, but no contemporary reports of an actual prosecution of a Josh Tatum or anyone else, nothing that can actually be traced to a real court record anywhere. As for the word Josh the earliest citation is from the St. Louis Reveille of 1845 so I was a little early on that. but it was probably around a little before 1845. In either case it had nothing to do with a Josh Tatum for 40 years later.



Have you seen some of the contemporary counterfeits that successfully passed back then? A lack of reeding would not have been that great a mistake to overcome.



Yes the No Cent coins are readily available in higher grade, but except for the very low grade modern "racketeer nickels" the Racketeers tend to sell for LESS than an unaltered coin, so why take a MS coin gold plate it so that it will sell for LESS money?



I said the TYPICAL "racketeer nickel" The coin that began this thread is not typical and may be a contemporary one.