I thought I'd share an experience I had when I was about
13 or 14 - when I got to see an ex-con convert a 1910 V-nickel
into a 1913 V-nickel.
In Georgetown, Kentucky there is (or was) a very popular
flea market, and several coin dealers used to display there.
This was just as I was really getting into coins, so when
I saw a white 2x2 coin holder that said "$10,000.00 or best
offer", it certainly caught my eye.
Yep, it was a 1913 V-nickel. Sort of.
Being young and naive and, well, dumb, I called my Dad over and
explained how if he could loan me $10,000, I was sure I could
double our money instantly. I explained that there were only 5
of these in the world, and this guy was seriously underselling it!
Fortunately, my dad was not as gullible as I was, nor in the habit
of carrying $10,000 on his person, so he struck up a conversation
with the dealer, who was surprisingly forthcoming. As it turned out,
the coin had started its life as a 1910 V-nickel, but the 0 had been
altered to look like a 3.
That's been a long time, but I swear, it was perfect. At least
to the naked eye. Nowadays, of course, you'd use UV and other
tools to check for surface disturbance, but back then it looked
bloody perfect.
Apparently, this dealer was taking 1910 V-nickels to a friend of
his in the local prison, who was then manipulating the "0" to
resemble a "3". The prisoner was charging the dealer $10 each for
this service.
Before leaving the flea market, the dealer said I could buy the
coin for $20 if I wanted. (Down from $10,000... not bad!)
After several more trips to the flea market, I gained the dealer's
trust, and he told me that his coin-altering friend was out of
jail, and if I wanted to see how it was done, to come by his
booth/tent thing on a certain day.
It was amazing. Using hand tools only (I only remember a vice,
a plastic hammer, some files, and a few little chisels), he
deftly turned that 0 into a 3 in a couple of hours. I don't think
this effort was as good as the one I'd seen earlier, but I do
remember him telling me that while in prison he would spend up to a
week on each coin (mostly because of the lack of easy access to tools).
(As I write this, I don't know how to explain the fact that neither
I nor my Dad ever made any effort to turn these guys in to the
authorities. I can't speak for my dad, but personally, I was so
overcome with curiosity that I don't think it ever occured to me.)
Fast forward 15 years. I'm friends with Joe Nickell. He's the
senior research fellow of CSICOP (
http://www.csicop.org/) and
author of lots of books about frauds and hoaxes and investigations.
(Look up Joe Nickell on
Amazon.com. He's an amazing guy, and the
closest thing there is to a real-life Sherlock Holmes.)
When I tell Joe about this coin-altering incident, he's fascinated
and demands that I try to set up another meeting with this
ex-con forger guy. I finally find the dealer - this time at a
flea market in Louisville. He doesn't remember me, but he definitely
remembered his coin-altering friend.
The guy had been killed a few years earlier! Not sure about the
details, but apparently he'd tried to con the wrong guy. The dealer
said that his forger friend had figured out that it was much more
lucrative to falsify lesser coins. Apparently you can make more money
by faking a few key dates and mintmarks than trying to sell 1804
silver dollars, etc. at Kentucky flea markets!
I suppose that's the end of the story, but sometimes I wonder
how many coins out there - the pride of many people's collections -
were actually made by a guy with a file and lots of free time.
Posted 02/05/2005 02:33 am
1913 
