Are there any known original gold plated Liberty 'no cents' V-nicks??

Back in the day when they were gold plated and passed off as 5.00 pieces...any known originals from then?? It might be too difficult to tell, for many reasons, but always wondered...

 

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The "racketeer" nickels still appear on the auction sites but I'd be pretty careful since they're being produced with gold plating today. Unless it came with an iron-clad pedigree, I'd stay away from them.

http://americanhistoricsociety.com/products/"Racketeer"-Gold%2dPlated-Nickel.html

 

yeah, that's what I mean...I can get a plated one anywhere..I was wondering if there are any known originals from back in the day...

 

http://www.collectibleamerica.com/coins/1883-racketeer-nickel-set.html

 

Did you notice Collectible Americas description? It calls them authentic coins but referrers to them later as "just like" what was passed off by the con men. The authentic probably refers to them being authentically gold plated "just like" the originals. Do you think he is just Joshing us?

 

A racketeer nickel that has gold plating over heavily worn areas cannot be original racketeer nickels. Think about it, the ruse worked for only a short time when the new Liberty Nickels first came out. Genuine, original racketeer nickels would be AU or BU coins that were plated, certainly not heavily worn examples. If the original racketeer nickels remained in circulation (as five cent pieces) the gold plating would have worn away as the coin circulated with the plating remaining in protected areas until it completely wore away.

 

I have one, gold plated.

I believe it may be original, considering:
Worn, but: The gold plate is worn off in areas.

 

Some very crafty racketeers of the time even went to the trouble of adding reeding to the centsless nickles, to make them more believable as half eagles. Interestingly, the same type of con occurred in England five years later, when some people gilded the new Jubilee style six pences and passed them off as half sovereigns. A new design was quickly introduced with the words "six pence" dominating the reverse.

 

I've been told that counterfeits of counterfeits are more common than the genuine counterfeits.

Not being an expert, I'm not sure I could tell the difference, but I have seen a few of these coins over the years at coin shows.

 

your wrong hobo. legitimate ones have the gold worn down

 

I believe that's what Hobo is saying.

 

The modern replated Racketeer nickels should be called "Racketeer Racketeer Nickels".

 

good on coinmaster1! The god of V nickels agrees! Counterfeit counterfeits!

 

I have one that has some gold remaining on it. Bought it way back in 1993 or so.

 

Kindly point out my error please.

 

yesss

 

I'm still waiting.

 

Most of us have heard the story of Josh Tatum and the racketeer nickel. I first learned of the tale when I took an ANA correspondence course. I remember a previous thread where Conder101 & some others gave evidence that the whole story may have been more fiction than fact.

I just invested 15 minutes trying to search the CT archives to find the thread but I didn't find it. Perhaps someone else can locate the thread or reiterate the arguments again in this thread.

Klaatu barada nikto

 

From the best science fiction movie ever made.

 

Still no answer. I would like to know where exactly in my answer I was wrong.