Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="medoraman, post: 1953023, member: 26302"]Supposedly. I have never seen one that I would believe was authentic to the timeframe. The problem I always had with the story of the racketeer nickel was that $5 was a lot of money back then. People were careful what they accepted for such a some. I would say $5 then might be equal to $300-500 today. If someone tried to pay you with a highly unusual $500 bill, how carefully would you be looking at it? This, and the fact the weight is so distinctly different, I cannot imagine anyone who had handled real half eagles being fooled by a plated nickel. So, because of these things I have always considered the story pretty spurious. Yeah, a few people might have tried it, but I would guess not very successfully. The thing is, though, the newspapers got a hold of the story and ran with it, putting pressure on the mint to change their design. That part is very true, and is also the reason why this type is so cheap to buy today in BU grades. I simply believe nearly all, if not all, gold plated nickels in people's collections today were done long after the fact to sell to collectors. All in all, its a good story for every US collector to know though. Its a great lesson proving that coins that everyone believes will be collectible one day won't be. Its usually the coins no one pays attention to that become valuable.[/QUOTE]