The complete story was posted not to long ago and that article made me want one of these so darn bad I had to find one. I did! And it even has a nice die crack from 12:00 to 3:00. The think I don't know is, is if this is one of Josh's originals. No way of proving or disproving so I'm going with yes it is.
The original racketeer nickels had carefully done reeded edges rather than plain which is usually the easiest way to tell. Incidentally, although there definitely were cases where the type 1 V nickel was gold plated and passed at the time, the Josh Tatum story was probably made up in the early 1960s. Nowhere does it exist in print prior to about '65. The 1880 Federal census lists only 4 people named "Josh Tatum" living in the U.S.--none of whom were deaf mutes. Nor is there any record of a Boston court case involving him.
My CT Secret Santa sent me one of those last year. Interesting history there, OK. Ought to be explored by the urban legends TV show.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it was my understanding that the Racketeer Nickels were not gold-plated but dipped in a gold wash which probably contained no real gold. If that was the case, I would think that decades of circulation would wear away much of the gold wash. I would be very suspect if I saw one in the condition of the one posted by the OP. Chris
Several years ago, I photographed a "racketeer love token" for someone. It was an 1883 Liberty nickel with the reverse planed off an engraved. Pretty cool piece, but if you think about it, you have someone who took a nickel, had it engraved, and then possibly plated it in gold to pass off to his significant other as a new gold coin. That's one guy who would be in far more trouble for what he did than the legendary "Josh Tatum" ever would have been. I'll dig up the picture later and post it.
You guys may enjoy this story I heard about that happened last week at a TPGS. Woman Emailed to ask if TPGS slabbed "Racketeer nickels." She was told yes, either in the "yellow label" educational slab or in the normal slab if her coin was a genuine contemporary piece w/reeded edge. She wrote back that she was disappointed at the ignorance of the authenticators because the edge of the pieces had nothing to do with her coin's authenticity! The TPGS replied that one reason that gold coins of the period had reeded edges was to prevent metal being shaved from their edge. Furthermore, if someone tried to pass a piece w/o reeding, it would be immediately suspect. AFAIK, she did not send in her coin. I will see the authenticator this weekend at Lakeland to see if there is more.
actually NOT a counterfeit. It is a [technically] damaged coin. The coin is real, Simply gold plated. It could have been counterfeit if he had struck his own coins, this is just 'changed'.
I like the way the C and the Y are interlocked, not one on top of the other but woven together as one.
Medal turn makes it read correctly when the coin is worn on a chain. That style is quite common for monograms like this. You even see it when there are three initials and each appears on top and on the bottom of the stack.
