Racketeer Nickel

Interesting. I have certainly seen a gold plated 1883 nickel before, but have never thought about how one would determine when the plating was done.

Personally I have doubts. When the new British coinage was introduced in 1816, according to Ruding, some people were gilding the sixpences & shillings in an attempt to pass them as the new & unfamiliar half-sovereign & sovereign denominations. On the other hand, the gold half-eagle was well-established when the Liberty-head nickel came on the scene, bearing a design uniform with the other gold denominations. More than that, coin scales were far more common in 1883 than in 1816, thanks to industrialization.

I myself have a gilt 1817 shilling, but examination shows it was gilded after being in circulation a considerable time. I can say this because the devices are worn without the plating over them being thinner than elsewhere. I am immediately suspicious of a plated coin with worn-thin plating, because it seems to me that, as soon as a gilt piece appeared in circulation, it would be either destroyed or saved out, not suffered to continue to pass.

The best reason for not bothering to think about it is because there's no answer possible.

We'll never know, of course, because there are so many imitations that the originals are only a tiny percentage of what's extant. They're been being imitated continuously since the very first one appeared - the story of a single origin is apocryphal - and there isn't even a way to decide which of these is "original" or not.

Even if you did know exactly when the one you have was made, at what point is the dividing line between "original" and "imitation?" 1890? 1900? 1950? Well, we can deprecate the latter, I think.

And why do people think that they didn't use circulated examples for "originals?" Or that "imitations" didn't righteously circulate?

"Racketeer Nickels" are numismatics' best example of paying for vapor. The best that the most knowledgeable experts can ever do with them is make educated guesses.

I like those. Need one for my solid Gold coin collection.

I'd figure that the authentic racketeer nickels would have traces of gold gilt left, and they wouldn't have that shiny 24k replated look to them, almost the look like they've been polished.

Matthew, yours is a very neat piece. I like it a lot.

Thanks for all the info guys. I'm not sure which story I like more, the Racketeer Nickel or the Henning Nickel.

I agree ... there is no way to tell what era these nickels
plated.

As for mine ....

The guy who sold it to me swears it was made on a $5.00
gold planchet.

But he would let me have it for $1.00




I use mine to fill one of the empty holes at the end of
my low grade (bucket nickels) Liberty head/ V nickel album.

While I tend to agree that it's next to impossible to ascertain just when one of these "racketeer nickels" was produced, this one is about as close to being original as any that I've seen in over fifty years of collecting. Note the most professionally produced reeded edge which retains much of the gold plating:







This XF-ish coin appears to have circulated and/or been carried as a pocket piece. About a third of the original gold plating remains.