Gold Coin Found With Ace 250

[ron_c]

I was given permission to look around an old house that was built in the 1880's. When I arrived I could tell someone had beat me looking, because of the plugs in the soil. Looked anyway but didn't find anything buy a few brass items. Just before I was ready to leave, thought I would look around the front door as the wooden front porch had been removed. Very first signal was a solid hit on the nickel at 2". Digging down and that's when I saw it, GOLD! Since it had rained a couple of days ago, the coin had mud on it and I didn't want to scratch the coin removing the mud. At home, let it soak for a few minutes and when I looked at it, an 1897 V Nickel. WHAT!!! Sure enough, it was a GOLD PLATED 1897 V Nickel. What a disappointment.

 

[fortbball9]

That is a odd find,gold plated V nickle.
But, hey GOLD and you got out
congrats and I would still MD around there the other guy might have missed something.

fortbball9

 

[Jack_MIghtyheart]

Still a great find. The gold-plated v nicks have a good amount of history behind them as to why they're gold colored.

 

[John (Ma)]

LOL, great find anyway and unique, too.

 

[kieser sousa/rip]

Still a nice find....I'd like to see a pic if ya got one.I have one but most of the gold has worn off mine but I still think it's one of my more interesting coin finds.

Still a great find. The gold-plated v nicks have a good amount of history behind them as to why they're gold colored.

True.i have one that was plated.They were plated so that they could be passed off as $5 gold coins to folks that dident know any better.

 

[allen]

better than a gold plated toy coin...

 

[X-Terra70_TreasureHunter]

Racketter's in the 1800's Gold plated Nickles since they were about the
same size as a $5.00 gold coin, the major percentage of the nickles
used were 1883's which did not have the word "CENT" on the obverse,
this is why the mint added the word CENT to the back so folks would
know that it was not a GOLD coin

Note: Obverse is the back of the coin

 

[West Jersey Detecting]

Note: Obverse is the back of the coin

Actually reverse is the back of a coin, but other than that your facts on the 1883 are right on!

From Coinfacts: http://www.coinfacts.com/nickels/liberty_head_nickels/1883_liberty_nickel_no_cents.htm

When the new Liberty Head Nickel was introduced in 1883, no one at the Mint noticed (or cared) that the word "CENTS" was missing from the reverse. The omission was noticed by certain enterprising individuals who, quick to seize an opportunity to make a quick buck, gold-plated the coins and passed them off as Five Dollar gold pieces. These became known as "Racketeer" Nickels. True "Racketeer" Nickels should be in very high grade and the edge should be reeded (this was done by hand to mimic the edge reeds on a gold piece). Modern versions are usually low grade and their edges are smooth; they have been produced by the tens of thousands and are, in effect, rip-offs of a rip-off!

Later in 1883, the Mint corrected the reverse by moving "E PLURIBUS UNUM" to top center and replacing it with a bold "CENTS".

 

[Pentico]

Great post, I learned something today..

DN

 

[mlayers]

nice find....Matt

 

[John987]

Nice find even if not true gold!!
HH

John

 

[hunter945]

Nice Find.

 

[ron_c]

Re: Gold Coin Found With Ace 250 - MYSTERY SOLVED

Talked to a friend about the gold plated V nickel I found and he told me that a friend of his has found 2 of them over the years, one has a lot of the plating missing. Seems like there was a older man that collected coins and when he would buy collections from people he would have to buy all the collection just to get the few choice coins and most were worn common date coins. He worked for a military aircraft company in the Ft. Worth/Dallas area and had a friend that worked in the plating department. He carried hundreds of worn, common date V nickels and had them gold plated. This became his calling card. When he would leave a tip, he would also leave one of the gold plated V nickels as well. Since he also used a metal detector he would always leave one of the nickels behind for someone else to find. This was back in the either late '60s or in the early 70's when he started this. So, if anyone finds one of these nickels in the North Central Texas area it probably was put there by this guy. How mine ended up under the wooden front porch is anybody's quess.

 

[washingtonian]

ugh that is brutal dude I am sorry. At least you found a V nickel though, that is still pretty cool

 

[STH69]

should be some neat pics

 

[N.J.THer]

I always liked this part of the gold plated V nickle history:

"Just joshing you" came from the late 1800's and has a very interesting story behind it!

Josh Tatum was a deaf mute, but a very enterprising young man from the midwest. In 1883 the US Mint came out with a new nickel. It was deemed the Liberty Head Nickel and on the reverse side had a large roman numeral V stamped on it. The new nickel did not have the word "cents" or "nickel" stamped on it. Josh Tatum noticed this and the fact that it was nearly the same size as the US $5.00 gold piece, which at the time was used as common currency. With the help of a friend familiar in gold electroplating base metal, they turned these coins into a literal gold mine. Tatum went from town to town going into shops, stores & mercantiles. He was very careful not to purchase anything that cost more than a nickel, where he would hand over one of these gold plated nickels. The clerk would accept the coin, and in most instances give Josh back $4.95 in change, which he happily would take. By the time law enforcement caught up to him, he had visited hundreds of towns & had amassed a small fortune!.

The Law prosecuted him but ironcially he was found not guilty on the most serious charges, because he only purchased items that totaled 5 cents, and because he was deaf & could not speak he never represented that it was a new $5.00 gold piece.

The same year, the US mint added the word "cents" to the Liberty Head Nickle in an effort to bring this type of fraud to a halt.

Hence the famous saying "your not Joshing me are you"?

Congrats on your find.

NJ