Henning Counterfiet 1944 Nickel

I recently acquired this piece and thought I'd share my knowledge about these.

These counterfiet nickels were made in 1954 by Francis LeRoy Henning in Erial, New Jersey. Francis had been arrested previously for counterfeiting $5 bills. It is estimated that almost half a million of these pieces were produced by henning but only an estimated 100,000 pieces reached circulation. The rest are belived to have been dumped in the Copper Creek and the Schuylkill River in New Jeresy. Henning also made nickels dated 1939, 1946, 1947, and 1953. From what I can tell these pieces were not made in nearly the numbers as the 1944, or they are all in cirulation. He was arrested and sentenced to 3 years in jail and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.

The giveaway on these nickels is the omission of the large "P" mintmark that resides on the reverse of genuine pieces. There is also another die marker in the left leg of the "R" in "Pluribus" which makes the leg look like a loop.

The original war nickels weighed 5 grams and the Henning pieces weighed 5.4 grams.

 

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Very cool.

 

Lets just be thankful the man didn't move to China after he got out of prison!

 

Interesting information. You mentioned those were heavier than the originals. Wouldn't that be a riot if his were made with Platinum. Or all Silver because he didn't have any copper.
I heard somewhere that some of the Chinese fakes are made with pure Silver since the purpose is to sell for the dates, not the Silver content. Wonder if that is true.

 

I believe it. Although I guess it would depend on where, when, and by who.

I've seen some extremely sloppy Chinese fakes (like 1903 ASEs... lol) and I'm sure there is more then one Chinese fake out there still fooling people to this day.

 

I read that he used genuine blanks, so I'm wondering about the weight discrepancy.

I've got one at home I found while nickel searching. I'll have to weigh it.

 

I like Henning Nickels (and counterfeits in general). I have one Henning Nickel.

I can't recall exactly but I think Henning's 1944 nickel planchets matched those used for normal nickels, not War Nickels. Does anybody know off hand?

 

There's been a few other threads about the Henning nickels here on CoinTalk... all with good information. A few minor discrepancies here and there (it was the Cooper River in Camden NJ, not Copper, and the Schuylkill River is directly across the Delaware River in Pennsylvania). The booklet "The Counterfeit 1944 Jefferson Nickel" by Dwight H. Stuckey has also been mentioned. The blanks were 79.1% copper, 20.5% nickel and 0.4% iron; leftover blanks seized from him were supposedly used to make real coins... however, over the years the legend of Henning has grown considerably, so I'm not sure if this is true or not. I do remember there was an influx of these nickels back when I was in grammer school (1952 I believe) that got me interested in coin collecting as a hobby.

 

I think that this might also be a Henning nickel. The looped "R" is there, but not as distinct as on the piece shown above. The weight is about 5.1 grams.

 

?? I see a mintmark

 

As a Jefferson aficionado, I have always wanted a Henning Nickel. What is the highest grade one can find these counterfeits?

 

?? I don't.

 

Where? I don't see one. Remember that all genuine War Nickels (which includes 1944 nickels) have a LARGE mintmark above Monticello.

 

where can I find one?? checked a few places (ebay, craigslist, etc.) but found nothing.

 

I really don't think there is one. At least I can't see anything under a 16x loop. Here are a couple more views.

I do think that the pellet between Liberty and 1944 has an interesting shape to it. Probably just a nick.

 

I was planning on going to the river to see if i can turn a couple of these up on the detector one day when i get a chance. Not too far from me.

 

Man, that would be cool! Have people found them at the site recently?

 

Sorry, loupe

 

There's a distinct shape of a mintmark I would say the upper part of the P.
In the loupe you can see the same area as raised. It's just a cull war nickel.
Henning's nickels have no such raised area and in addition no markings that distinctly resemble a mintmark.

 

I think what you are referring to is just a combination of wear and color variation. There really is no trace of anything that looks like a mintmark. And, the color and fabric of the this nickel just aren't the same as those of a war nickel. It may or not be a Henning nickel. But it is not a war nickel.