I Now Have THREE Different Dates for a Henning Nickel

Here is my latest I purchased today: A 1947 with the 'Looped R."

As far as Hennings go, the condition of this one is incredibly good. I still have never seen 1 step on the Memorial steps on the reverse, let alone full steps.



My 1939



...and the much more common 1944


Hopefully soon I will have all 5 known dates.

 

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I'd have to have a longer life span and deeper pockets if I were to try to gather all five known dates. I hope you reach your goal soon and post all five together.

Steve

 

Love this! For those who don't know, the known dates are: 1939, 1944, 1946, 1947 and 1953. Other than '44, these are really hard to find. I have never seen one of any date in any higher than around VF grade.

Any plans to get them slabbed by ICG (they will slab counterfeits in a neat holder)? Just out of curiosity, how long did it take to track down the '39 and the '47, and what might someone expect to pay for one other than the '44?

 

I am truly happy for you and jealous of you. I stupidly tossed the only henning nickel I ever held back into the pile of coins, because I didn't know all of the markers, or that there was more than one year of them made.

 

Weren't the later ones dumped in the river?
Were they recovered? Are they available?

 

I am sending this off to ICG as I have for my others as soon as I receive it.

As for what to pay, probably around $300+ for a 1939 G-VG as they are the next most common yet incredibly rare, and $500+ for the other dates if in this good condition or $400+ if in G-VG.

It has taken me 3 years to fimnd a 1939 for sale and almost 4 years for a 1947. Never seen a 1946 or a 1953 for sale, ever.

 

The government seized very few of them. About 100,000 made it to circulation of the roughly half-million he produced.

 

I'm tempted to review my hoard again...doubtful lightning would hit twice...but who knows. It's cool to see three dates together though.

 

I'm new here. Can I ask, what was the point of counterfeiting these?

 

Think about it really good.. you were able to purchase a lot more back then!
http://www.error-ref.com/henning-counterfeit-nickel/

 

I don't know the story behind it. I should probably look it up.

My first thought was, why the small denomination if you're going to counterfeit something. I'm sure he had his reasons. So he made them strictly for face value, no special rare dates. His skill level looked pretty good. I guess nickel had something to do with it, rather then making silver dollars.

I'll go look up the story. Thanks.

 

Paddy provided a shortcut to the story...but there are a number of story write-ups out there to find and read. I think that you are right on the point of base material. And indeed a nickel went further back then. I don't think it was a get rich scheme, but a means to provide some decent side money. Even the penalties levied against him were quite modest in my estimation. But his actions did provide for this unique opportunity.

 

If I have this right...
In the 1960s, one pound of nickel cost about 74 cents (http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cg...v1.JBilbrey2&id=EcoNatRes.MinYB1960v1&isize=M)

Copper at the time cost around 30 cents per pound (http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cg...1960v1.p0412&id=EcoNatRes.MinYB1960v1&isize=M)

Nickels are made of 75% copper, 25% nickel
For $1.64, you could make 4 pounds of nickel blanks (ignoring production costs). Four pounds of blanks produces about 360 nickels, or $18. I'll turn $1.64 into $18 any day!

If Henning made 100,000 nickels, he would've paid around $455 for the metal, and his profit would have been somewhere around $4,500. The purchasing power of $4,500 in 1960 is about $39,000 today.

And, who looks at a nickel and expects it to be counterfeit? It seemed like a safe bet.

 

Yep, makes sense as well.

 

Son-of-a-gun! I've got some reading to do. I hope there's not going to be a test!

Great thread @JCro57! See what you started. Not only do I have to digest all this, I've got a hoard of nickels I've gotta go re-check. Thanks gents!

 

Logic is correct, but dates are wrong. I believe Henning was counterfeiting in the 60s.

 

Thanks for the note. Edited to match the right year of production.

 

It was before 1960 as he got arrested for the counterfeit nickels in 1955. He also tried counterfeiting silver coins before, but couldn't get the right "look" for them by not using silver.

When he got arrested, the judge added on fines as he was also counterfeiting $5 bills.

 

I think someone could pass counterfeit $5 bills today easier than $100 bills. Who looks except us

 

He probably thought it was such a low denomination coin, no one would think that anyone would go to the trouble of faking them. Which is a lot of work.
One mistake, I think he was bringing bags of coins to the bank to redeem?
But he did have costs besides just the base metal. I bet the nickels cost him
2-3 cents each to produce.