Racketeer Nickel From National Collectors Mint

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Author	Replies: 4 / Views: 2,311
houston_guy462004 Valued Member United States 235 Posts	Posted 11/22/2006 3:53 pm Yes - I know the National Collectors Mint is a rip off for both genuine coins and oversized or undersized blindingly bright repoductions; and I only have some of them because my son gave them to me as a well-intentioned gift. I did, however, take a second look at a perfectly gold-plated racketeer nickel (I think for $19.95) because I completed my set of each type of nickel issued in 1883 and contemplated placing it in my display case beside them. It is the actual size and does not have the word COPY. It looks to be a genuine 1883 N/C nickel in AU-50 which NCM may have bought in large quantities and undoubtedly furnished the gold color. Any opinion as to the authenticity of the coin, other than it was certainly not gold plated in 1883? Report this Post to the Staff

SsuperDdave Moderator United States 23522 Posts	Posted 11/22/2006 4:22 pm I have no opinion, but in this specific instance I think that coin has a home in your collection. Can you weigh the coin accurately? Most counterfeits are underweight, and I'd expect your coin to be slightly overweight. That would be anecdotal evidence at best, of course. Report this Post to the Staff
Bryan1315 Bedrock of the Community United States 14454 Posts	Posted 11/22/2006 4:32 pm I beleive the NCM racateer nickels are made from actual coins, I have even seen some of them in PCI holderes stating they are racateer nickels, I am not 100% sure but I beleibe I read it somewhere that they just layered the genuine coin with gold Report this Post to the Staff
Morgan Fred Rest in Peace United States 2684 Posts	Posted 11/22/2006 10:43 pm All the Racketeering Nickels I've ever seen were made from genuine 1883 Liberty Head nickels which makes sense since so many were minted (5.5 million) that there would be no need to make counterfeit 83 nickels. Unfortunately, this holds true for both original gold plated RNs and modern gold plated RNs. The only means of which I am aware to determine the difference is authentic wear on the gold plating on an original versus bright unworn plating on recent copies. A provenance would also be helpful, e.g., found in great-grandfather's cigar box although this would be difficult to pass along. Other than NCM, Readers' Digest sold a lot of newly plated RNs a number of years ago, trying to pass them along as genuine Racketeering Nickels. I suspect there are far, far more modern RNs than original made-in-1883 RNs. However, to answer the question, almost certainly the basic nickel is authentic. Fred Report this Post to the Staff
houston_guy462004 Valued Member United States 235 Posts	Posted 11/23/2006 01:27 am Thanks, Fred. I think you are correct that the basic nickel is authentic --- a high grade 1883 N/C which might have been purchased in bulk for $4 or $5 and recently plated (as it is dazzling bright gold) and then sold for $17.95. It is the exact size of the nickel, whereas NCM does not produce exact size copies. Their offerings of original coins are far out of reasonable fair price range(eg, $199 for a worn Spanish bust dollar worth $40 at most; $999 for a liberty double eagle, etc.). Its sales staff are rudely pushy on the telephone, and I see that NCM is now defending a plethora of lawsuits for deceptive trade practices. I have seen racketeer nickels with the gold plating nearly worn off for sale on ebay; but the nickel I have has been recently plated, thereby ruining a beautiful high grade authentic 1883 N/C nickel. There are much better reproductions of rare coins on ebay. I believe that Ken Potter sells very good reproductions. Report this Post to the Staff
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