Posted 09/29/2005 9:35 pm
Related to this V (Liberty) Nickel subject is the 1883 "Racketeer" nickel in which many rather unscrupulous persons would gold-plate the original No Cents variety and try to pass them along as five-dollar gold pieces. They appear relatively frequently on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/1883-RACKETEER-...mZ8338874670 . Some seem to sell and others don't; when they sell, they seem to gain a little more value than the same nickel without plating.
I am only generally familiar with their history and maybe it's high time one of the coin magazines did an updated article on them. One fairly recent twist on the original scam is modern gold electro-plating on 1883 No Cents nickels to pass them along as "Racketeer" nickels. Sort of a scam on a scam. Readers' Digest sold a lot of these for more than $100 each (four easy monthly installments of $26.95); my mother was sucked into buying one. When I looked at it, it was pretty obvious it was a recent electro-plating rather than an original Racketeer nickel (too bright a finish on too worn a coin).
http://cgi.ebay.com/1883-RACKETEER-...mZ8338874670 . Some seem to sell and others don't; when they sell, they seem to gain a little more value than the same nickel without plating.
I am only generally familiar with their history and maybe it's high time one of the coin magazines did an updated article on them. One fairly recent twist on the original scam is modern gold electro-plating on 1883 No Cents nickels to pass them along as "Racketeer" nickels. Sort of a scam on a scam. Readers' Digest sold a lot of these for more than $100 each (four easy monthly installments of $26.95); my mother was sucked into buying one. When I looked at it, it was pretty obvious it was a recent electro-plating rather than an original Racketeer nickel (too bright a finish on too worn a coin).
