Gold Plated 1883 No Cents Nickel

Anyone have one, or even seen one? I suspect for what's his face to be imortalized with the expression, "You've got to be joshing me", there had to have to be more than a handful made.

I just picked up my first nickel at the local coin club last week, and would like to get a gold plated one, and the corresponding $5 gold coin to have a display.

For those that don't know:
Josh Tatum was a deaf mute young man from the Midwest. THe 1883 nickel on the reverse side had a large roman numeral V stamped on it.

Initially "cents" or "nickel" was not part of the design. It was nearly the same size as the US $5.00 gold piece. Josh and a friend turned these coins into replicas of the $5 coin, and Josh used them never purchasing anything that cost more than a nickel.

The store accepted the coin and gave $4.95 in change, which Josh happily took. When law enforcement caught up to him, he had allegedly visited hundreds of towns & amassed a small fortune. When prosecuted he was found not guilty on the most serious charges, because he only purchased items 5 cents or less, and being deaf & mute, he never said it was a new $5.00 goldpiece.

THe mint added cents to the coin and the rest is history.

HOWEVER, the reason I ask is that I came across this:

Most scholars doubt that Joshua Tatum existed, positing that joshing is a blending of the words joking and bosh. Back then a country rube was often called a Joshua. Some combination of these factors probably contributed to the coining (no pun intended) of the terms josh and joshing. Note that even though the word josh is taken from a proper name, it is no longer capitalized.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Here's one I have.

 

Now I have.
I just have a Lamination Error on a Normal V nickel. I will gladly post if need be. One of my favorite Nickel designs.

 

So cool and so jealous!!

 

It's never too late to put gold plating on a coin.

I've got a bunch of gold-plated Liberty nickels -- one or two are detailed 1883s, most are worn 1883s, a couple are other dates (yes, with CENTS still on the reverse). I doubt any of mine are "original". Some of them do appear to have circulated after they got plated, or else whoever plated them did a terrible job.

If you see a gold-plated nickel with CENTS, you know it's not original. If you see one that's worn, you can be pretty sure it's not original -- the scam, if it happened at all, would have to have happened when these had just entered circulation and most people hadn't seen one.

I frequently saw Littleton-style plastic-and-cardboard display holders with a gold-plated Liberty nickel and the story. All the ones I saw were heavily worn. I'm quite sure they just took worn nickels, plated them with a few cents worth of gold, and sold them at a hefty markup.

 

If it doesn't have a reeded edge it's probably not a true racketeer nickel.

 

Makes sense. Thank you. Doesn't seem like there should be a big premium then.

 

Josh Tatum never existed. No one has ever turned up any contemporary record of any court case, (although there ARE contemporary stories about the gold plated nickels). In fact no one has turned up a reference to the Josh Tatum story that predates the 1950's, and the word josh meaning to trick or fool, dates back to the 1840's well before the Racketeer nickel.

 

Perhaps that's why the fictional Tatum was given the first name of Josh. Neat story even if it's not true.

 

I bought a gold-plated 1883 No Cents last year to make a set for a grandson. Trying various strategies to get him interested in coin collecting. They're readily available on eBay. Don't expect them to be a so-called original, though.

Steve

 

Nice coin. I have several sealed 1885 fake gold coins passed off as the real thing. Thanks for sharing.

 

Were any of those bought recently, and did you buy locally, on ebarf, or elsewhere?

 

The “real ones” have a reeded edge along with the gold plating. I have one that I have shown in venues like this a number of times. I’ll get to that tomorrow.

And yes, an 1883 No Cent nickel could have been gold plated 139 years ago, or it could have done last week.

 

I've got a gold plated quarter that a teller traded to me for a quarter. She is a former student of my wife's. She knows I collect coins, but she got the gold-plated quarter from a customer. She gave the customer, a quarter, then I gave her a quarter for the gold-plated quarter. I have a box of coins, medals, etc. that I keep all of my weird coins. The most I ever paid for an odd coin or medal is face value.

 

I bought one from Littleton coil several years ago. When I saw this thread, I pulled it out of the safe. It doesn't have the reeding either, but it does have two nice die breaks and a chip.

 

Never really thought about the reeding...you learn something every day

 

https://coinweek.com/us-coins/fact-or-myth-josh-tatum-and-racketeer-nickels/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history-racketeer-nickel-180961066/

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articl...five-dollar-coins-on-their-wrists-to-show-off

 

Here is my piece with the nicely reeded edge.

 

Need your help. I've read this before (about the "real" Racketeer Nickel having reeded edges) but was always puzzled. Why the reeded edge when the V (No Cents) Nickels didn't have them? Thanks.

 

All the other US gold coins at the time had reeded edges. So did most silver coins (the twenty-cent being a notable exception). People expected high-value coins to have reeded edges.