1944 War Nickel Or Fake? Henning Nickel?

Oops spelled pluribus wrong above. Spell check didn't catch that one. To answer your question as to why. Henning had an earlier run in for counterfeiting paper money and he decided that coins would be under the rarar more. He made dies for a nickel, dime, quater and half. He said the nickel was the best so he used that one. He wasn't a coin collector so he didn't realize he made an obverse from the 1944 and then made a reverse from a non wartime nickel. The 1944 was his first die but when he took a bunch of rolls to the bank the teller opened them up to count them and made the comment that it's funny they are all the same date. Henning said that's when he decided to do other nickel dates. He claimed to have made 6 different obverses and 6 different reverses. The one reverse has the hole in the R but the other five are not as easy to distinquish yet. So they still circulate. It was in 1956 that Henning went to jail for 4 years. He is not living anymore so it is now up to us to solve the mystery of finding his coins.

Wow, that is interesting. Are they all the correct weight and composition?

They are that close that the mint confiscated the blanks Henning made and used them. I don't know if they remelted them and remade blanks or if they used them as is. There is a small card covered book written in 1982 by Dwight Stuckey called "The Counterfeit 1944 Jefferson nickel" with all of this info in it. It is hard to find. I bought my copy in a Kolbe auction. I have over 20 of these nickels so far and I found the nickels with the hole in the R usually weigh 5.2-5.4 g and the ones without the hole weigh 4.8-4.9g. When I finish roll searching nickels I always look over my 1939, 1946, 1947 and 1953 nickels for the hole and I weigh all of them. The nickels from this year weigh 4.8-5.0 g. So Henning nickels are the correct composition and weight. The way he was caught was coin collectors from NJ (I think it was the Camden NJ Coin Club) found the nickels with the wrong reverse and reported it to the mint. It took a long time for them to start looking for Henning because at first they said the nickels were authentic. The one thing I noticed with these is the finish on the nickels is always rough or finely pitted looking and the details are not sharp on the building even if the edges of the lettering look sharp. I think his dies were made like this. Also the nickels sometimes have a darker color. Not as dark as War Nickels but a little darker than the regular mintage nickel. I have been thinking about writing an article on these for the Numismatist but I want to look them over more to try to find other diagnostics to look for first. I plan on taking some to the Baltimore ANA show to get some pointers from some of the experts.

If I remember what I've read in the Stuckey booklet, the composition of the planchets was a commercially available alloy that was similar but not exactly the same as the Mint's coppernickel composition. Alloy percentages slightly different and I believe there was a third metal present. If I remember right he didn't produce the planchets himself and had them supplied ready made.

The counterfeiting of the nickels was not an extremely profitable venture. When he was arrested he was working on new plates for a counterfeit five dollar bill.

Can someone post a close up picture of the hole in the R? Now I've got another thing to look for while nickel roll-hunting =)

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Thanks for the pic! So after searching my little stash of pre-'60s nickels, I found this interesting thing... dated 1947



I know it's in the wrong location (not on the lower right leg of the R, but is it always located there?) Perhaps this might be a different die? Any other input would be appreciated...I've totally been bitten by the nickel-bug, and this would make for a great addition to my collection if I really found a Henning nickel in circulation

Here's to hoping...

Cheungsta, Your coin looks interesting. But I think it is a ding. The metal looks moved around the hole. Another thing to check is the weight. All of my Henning nickels with the hole weigh around 5.3g. Unfortunately, the Henning nickels I have that do not have a hole in the R weigh the normal 4.8g. So the hole and the weigh are great to show it is a Henning nickel but do not prove it is not a Henning nickel. Again, the known dates are 1939, 1946, 1947 and 1953. Then there is one other date Henning said he did but never revealed the date. The suspects are 1940, 1941, 1943 and 1951. But no one know for sure. Keep searching.