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FREE: 1883 Liberty Head "Racketeer" Nickel

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Description

The listing, 1883 Liberty Head "Racketeer" Nickel has ended.

This auction is for a 1883 Liberty Head Nickel that has been Gold Plated in an attempt to pass it off as a 1883 Gold Half Eagle. This coin was the reason that you now see these Nickels in 2 varieties, The "With Cents" and "Without Cents". This coin has not been completely changed into the Half Eagle because the Reeded Edge was not added to it, which made it much harder to pass it off.
Here is the story behind these:

When famed coin designer Charles Barber designed the 1883 nickels, he depicted the denomination on the reverse simply as the Roman numeral “V.” Because the word “cents” did not appear on the coin and the obverse was similar to the Liberty Head Half Eagle, unscrupulous swindlers altered the nickel by hand-cutting grooved reeds into its smooth edges and gold-plating the copper nickel coins, then passing them off as $5 gold coins. When the Mint learned of these “Racketeer Nickels” they hurriedly added the word “cents” at the bottom of the reverse, closing one of the most larcenous chapters in the history of the U.S. Mint.

Even without the Gold plating on this coin, it still is in very good condition.

The scans above are of the actual item that you will receive, and are provided for you to determine the condition and/or grade of it.
I am no longer accepting GIN offers for my auctions, everyone now gets a shot at bidding.
The winner will receive this via FREE SHIPPING W/Tracking.
Remember that all Listia rules apply.

All items will be sent the next available day after end of auction, for I actually go to the Post Office and pay the Postage and Tracking in person so that you will receive your item as soon as possible. I also check all Tracking numbers daily and will keep you informed of anything that is out of the ordinary.
Thank you for your interest in my auctions and stopping by to view them.

Questions & Comments

very cool

May 18th, 2016 at 8:42:30 AM PDT by

one heck of a story behind these. most people who bid on the 1883 nickels have no idea as to why there are 2 varieties being the with and without cents.

May 18th, 2016 at 9:47:42 AM PDT by

amazing history in these, no doubt ☻

May 18th, 2016 at 9:50:11 AM PDT by

...

May 18th, 2016 at 5:17:56 PM PDT by

is this an early version, or later version?

May 18th, 2016 at 12:16:49 PM PDT by

I have no idea as to what an early or later version would be... this is an 1883 liberty V Nickel that has been Gold Plated because it is the "no cents" variety and in those days could be passed off as a $5 Gold Piece because it was exactly the same looking coin at first but made of Gold instead of Nickel.
as you can see, the coin is in great condition for an 1883 V Nickel, but the gold Plating did not flow very well over the coin.

May 18th, 2016 at 1:24:25 PM PDT by

The actual ones they even reeded the edge

May 18th, 2016 at 1:29:05 PM PDT by

that is true. cutting the reeded edge into these coins would make them exactly as the Gold Eagle but it was very hard to do I am sure that you could imagine. That is what it had to come down to after the ones without were found as fakes. that was the first thing that they would check for it was the only difference between the 2 coins.

May 18th, 2016 at 5:13:18 PM PDT by

There has been a story circulating for some time that a person named Josh Tatum was one of the most notorious of the Liberty nickel gold platers.

It’s said he was a deaf mute who gold plated hundreds of 1883 nickels. He would go into a store to purchase items that were 5 cents or less and then pass off his gold-plated nickels to the cashier. Without saying a word, he would wait for the cashier to return his change and would usually get $4.95 in return.

Eventually, he was tried in a court of law for fraud. However, the charges were dismissed because he never actually asked for change and nobody could testify against him!

May 18th, 2016 at 1:29:40 PM PDT by

that would be the most famous of stories regarding this coin and what he did knowing that he could not be prosecuted because he could not tell the coins were not the Gold Eagle for he was blind.

May 18th, 2016 at 5:11:01 PM PDT by

This is a nice auction to get this kind of coin, and i would grade the coin at very fine + looking at the picture

May 18th, 2016 at 1:32:00 PM PDT by

the coin itself is really nice. everything that does not look right is the Gold on the coin. I guess that the only good thing about that is there seems to be extra Gold on the coin instead of a very thin layer.

May 18th, 2016 at 1:36:46 PM PDT by

rare coin hard find indeed

May 21st, 2016 at 1:34:52 PM PDT by

these are hard to find... with the back story that goes with it, everybody holds onto these for they really do fit into 2 collections

May 21st, 2016 at 6:58:38 PM PDT by

1883 Liberty Head "Racketeer" Nickel is in the Collectibles | Coins category