The Five-Dollar Nickel by Cindy Regnier

Have you ever heard of an old coin called the Liberty Head Nickel? Perhaps you know it by its common name, The Racketeer Nickel. It’s a real coin minted in the United States in 1883. It is one of the rarest and most sought-after items among coin collectors, but not because of its value in today’s dollars. The fascinating, scandalous (and somewhat humorous) story behind this famous nickel is why collector’s all know about this coin and desire to have one in their displays. So what was this nickel’s history? Let’s find out.

The U.S. Mint issued the Liberty Head nickel in 1883, but it didn't include the word "cents" on the reverse. In fact, the word Cents did not appear anywhere on the coin. Instead, there was a large V (Roman number 5) in the center of the reverse, with a wreath of cotton, corn, wheat, and tobacco surrounding it.  

So what?, you may ask. It would appear the US Mint learned a valuable lesson in designing its future coins. Unfortunately, the Liberty Head nickel was almost identical in size to the $5 gold coin that people commonly used at that time. You can guess where this is going. Seeing an opportunity, con-men simply painted the Liberty Head Nickels to appear golden in color and passed them off as $5 gold coins.

   Brilliant scheme. Apparently, many got away with this before someone finally figured out what was happening. The most famous and often-told story about the racketeer nickel concerns a man by the name of Josh Tatum.
Josh Tatum was a deaf-mute, as deaf folks were often called back then because without their hearing, they never learned to speak. Tatum, seeing that the new nickel was close in size to the Liberty Head Half Eagle—the denomination of a $5 gold coin, decided to try gold-plating the coin and try to pass it off as a $5 gold piece. He would go from store to store and point at items costing five cents. Well-meaning storekeepers recognized his disability and kindly retrieved the item for him as Josh laid his gold-plated nickel on the counter. The store clerk would than give Josh the requested item along with $4.95 in change. Josh pocketed the change and went to the next store. Tatum was said to have amassed a small fortune, reportedly collecting as much as $15,000—a huge amount at the time. Great plan, right? But Mr. Tatum was finally caught and his scheme exposed. Fortunately for him, Mr. Tatum hired a very clever lawyer when his case went to trial. The lawyer simply argued that his client never verbally misrepresented the coin’s value due to his inability to speak. He never asked for change, just received it when offered. The charges were dropped against Josh Tatum and he would go down in history as the man who “got away with it.”

 Of course, the U.S. Mint added the word "cents" to the coin's design later in 1883 and took what had become known as the Racketeer nickel out of circulation as much as possible, making the coins a rare find today. The total mintage of the 1883 No Cents coin was less than one days production of modern day Nickels. Most coins were damaged or worn out in circulation, leaving few for today’s collectors.

Admittedly, the story of Josh Tatum is not proven and may be nothing more than a tall tale, but the Racketeer Nickel was very real. In 2001, archeologists in Deadwood, South Dakota uncovered a cache of over 200 coins. Among these was one particularly special coin: an 1883 Racketeer Nickel. It was in poor condition and worth only about ten cents, but significant nonetheless.  

Deadwood Nickel

Any collector lucky enough to have one in his collection, gold-plated or not, is considered very lucky indeed.
  So what do you think? Did Josh Tatum really get rich with this scheme? Obviously, many tried it before the misuse of the nickels became widely known. Regardless, it makes a very interesting story in the history of our nation’s coin production. 

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