Wondering Whether This 1940 Jefferson Is Real

With the closer up pics I am leaning more towards a cast fake than I was before. But I still believe that it is unlikely that anyone would ever get rich counterfeiting nickels. The scale needed to make a decent buck out of it is way too large for individuals to invest in. Henning proved it, his was probably the largest scale counterfeiting attempt of contemporary US coinage and he likely spent more than he cleared by the time he got caught. His was a bit different too, that he bought ready-made blanks and created dies rather than using casting techniques. If he had been more careful with his date selection and avoided the 42-45 dates he may never have been caught and we may have a bigger mystery on our hands.


More modern fakes like that pictured in davec13's post could be made off-shore. I wouldn't be surprised if foreign companies or even governments try this on occasion, to test the waters or to mix with real coins for the recycling program. Again, in order to make a profit large quantities need to be passed.

The most important thing, I think, is to remember that even the US government cannot make a profit on minting nickels, and hasnt been able to since at least the 90s. That would mean that this is either contemporary (1940-1950ish) or a slightly more modern attempt not to defraud, but simply to satisfy the question "Can I do it?"

I am leaning to agree with the others here--this does appear to be a cast counterfeit, not a struck Henning.

If I recall, the blanks that Henning used cost 2.5-3.5 cents each, in the early 50s. His machines and dies were very durable, but expensive leading to a huge initial cost to overcome with 20-40% profit margin per unit produced.

Casting would have a much smaller startup time, but a much higher cost per unit, since the metal must be melted, which is not cheap unless you are using something like zinc.

I love how excited we all get over the prospect of a fake nickel!

Get rich, No. Get by or make ends meet, Maybe. It doesn't take that much to create crude casting molds and around the end of the depression a nickel was still a significant amount of money. If you were close to being able to make ends meet but not quite making it, supplementing your income with a few dollars worth of nickels a week could make the difference. It would be like making a couple rolls of dollar coins a week today. Only back then nickels were in everyday circulation, and dollar coins aren't today. But if they got rid of the dollar note and the coins became commonplace in circulation, passing them wouldn't be difficult (Ask the British about the counterfeit round pounds in circulation.)