🔎 UNIDENTIFIED 1938 Nickel with Swastika on Jefferson’s Collar.

[s1204]

Hi,

I came to this site cause it seems like you guys really know what you are talking about!

I was going through some old coins and I found this 1938 nickel. I don’t know much about coins and I know this symbol might have been carved into it later or it could actually represent Native American culture before the symbol was used in Germany but I’m wondering if anyone has any information on it or if it enhances the worth.

Thank you!

 

[Retired Sarge]

Apparently there was a case with the FBI in 1941, they were searching for the people responsible for defacing quarters with the Swastika using what is said to have been a chisel. So it appears from some additional looking that nickels were also defaced this way. Can't open the nickel article as the link doesn't work. But from what little reading I did, it seems it was likely done by Pro-Nazi sympathizers, leading upto and maybe during WWII.

As to price, I don't know if it increases the value or not, that could be found out by joining a numismatic site or possibly having it graded.

 

[s1204]

Apparently there was a case with the FBI in 1941, they were searching for the people responsible for defacing quarters with the Swastika using what is said to have been a chisel. So it appears from some additional looking that nickels were also defaced this way. Can't open the nickel article as the link doesn't work. But from what little reading I did, it seems it was likely done by Pro-Nazi sympathizers, leading upto and maybe during WWII.

As to price, I don't know if it increases the value or not, that could be found out by joining a numismatic site or possibly having it graded.

This is interesting. Makes me feel like I should get rid of it if it was an FBI case.

Thanks for taking the time to reply!

 

[Retired Sarge]

This is interesting. Makes me feel like I should get rid of it if it was an FBI case.

Thanks for taking the time to reply!

It's basically an interesting, albeit ugly, historical footnote in US history. A lot of people don't know that the US had a large and strong Nazi sympathizer movement and that there were Nazi rallies held by them leading up to WWII.

While the atrocities committed under the Nazi leadership during WWII in Europe were/are heinous. The object itself can be looked at similarly as a coin having been defaced with a Republican or Democratic symbol. The case has long been closed and is nothing more than something that happened in our past, and the nickel itself is nothing more than a curiosity.

Maybe it's worth a bit more than a nickel, or a lot more, that remains to be seen and researched. But as a military history nut and militaria collector, if mine, I would hold on to it, and display it with my other memorabilia.

 

[jeff of pa]

You can send it to Me LOL
Coins have been Counter-stamped since the Beginning of Coins No law on the Books has ever carried weight that I know of. I Believe it was a Holier-then-thou move by the FBI , just because of the symbol that carried & The Complainers. no legal Weight to the Charge.

Dime from Fort Indiantown Gap Military Reservation Commissary in Lebanon County PA.
They Weren't Charged !

Keep it, spend it or Sell it ! Would you Destroy & Bury or Turn over Nazi Gold ?

Yes I Believe it it enhances it's Collector Value !

Counterfeit Henning Nickels are Illegal too !
Although technically it is illegal to own counterfeit money, there is a market for them

 

[jeff of pa]

The Morning Call​

Allentown Pennsylvania
19 Jul 1940, Fri · Page 7

Holyoak, Mass. 1940

 

[jeff of pa]

Remember the German American Bund also had camps in N.J., Bucks County PA & I Think NY if I remember Right during that Period. So it may have been a Camp Project to Stamp Coins.
Camp Nordland was a 204-acre (83 ha) resort facility located in Andover Township, New Jersey. From 1937 to 1941, this site was owned and operated by the German American Bund, which sympathized with and propagandized for Nazi Germany in the United States. This resort camp was opened by the Bund on 18 July 1937.

The Philadelphia Inquirer​

15 Apr 1939, Sat · Page 2

 

[Red-Coat]

That would be an interesting addition to anyone's collection. There certainly is an increase in value, but not enormously so. For comparison, there's a 1937 half-dollar in VG condition listed below that realised $80 at auction:


Circulated 1937 "Standing Liberty" half dollar silver coin. The rising sun, to the lower-left of Liberty, has been defaced by the addition of a sharply-chiseled mobile swastika, undoubtedly undertaken with propaganda intent. In a ca. 1965 coin holder. According to Numismatic News: "Back in the early days of World War II, before the U.S. got involved, the Treasury Department became aware of a small number of these coins that were found in circulation, apparently the work of a Nazi sympathizer. The perpetrator was considered to be a 'screwball,' who was defacing the coins with a screwdriver and a hammer." Very good.

Lot - STANDING LIBERTY HALF DOLLAR WITH CHISELED SWASTIKA

www.alexautographs.com

 

[invent4hir]

Retired Sarge - well said! That along with the details provided by jeff of pa and Red-Coat gives this nickel and other coins like it such an interesting story.

 

[s1204]

That would be an interesting addition to anyone's collection. There certainly is an increase in value, but not enormously so. For comparison, there's a 1937 half-dollar in VG condition listed below that realised $80 at auction:


Circulated 1937 "Standing Liberty" half dollar silver coin. The rising sun, to the lower-left of Liberty, has been defaced by the addition of a sharply-chiseled mobile swastika, undoubtedly undertaken with propaganda intent. In a ca. 1965 coin holder. According to Numismatic News: "Back in the early days of World War II, before the U.S. got involved, the Treasury Department became aware of a small number of these coins that were found in circulation, apparently the work of a Nazi sympathizer. The perpetrator was considered to be a 'screwball,' who was defacing the coins with a screwdriver and a hammer." Very good.

Lot - STANDING LIBERTY HALF DOLLAR WITH CHISELED SWASTIKA

www.alexautographs.com

Yeah this is interesting; it’s hard to find them for sale or sold anywhere. Good find! Thanks!

 

[s1204]

Remember the German American Bund also had camps in N.J., Bucks County PA & I Think NY if I remember Right during that Period. So it may have been a Camp Project to Stamp Coins.
Camp Nordland was a 204-acre (83 ha) resort facility located in Andover Township, New Jersey. From 1937 to 1941, this site was owned and operated by the German American Bund, which sympathized with and propagandized for Nazi Germany in the United States. This resort camp was opened by the Bund on 18 July 1937.

The Philadelphia Inquirer​

15 Apr 1939, Sat · Page 2
View attachment 2100525

It was from my fathers collection and we are from NJ so the Andover resort would be close to him.