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Racketeer Nickel 1883

jeff of pa

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Unscrupulous fellows back in 1883 found the newly issued Liberty V nickels in pocket change, gold plated them, and tried to pass them as $5 gold pieces. Of course they were worth only a nickel.

Soon the US government wised up and placed the word CENTS on the coin, a small detail they had overlooked at first.

Anyone can make a racketeer nickel out of an 1883 'no cents' nickel by gold plating it.
If you can find one actually from 1883, and can somehow prove it comes from that time, collectors might be willing to pay a large premium. Maybe $50 or so. The tough part is proving that you have a coin from a real racketeer, not a modern wanna-be!

https://coinquest.com/cgi-bin/cq/coins.pl?coin=11868

Press and daily Dakotaian.
(Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]), 14 Feb. 1883.

000bbb.webp


us_racketeer_nickel.webp

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...ext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
 
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From what I have read, that is why they started putting "cents" on the reverse later that year.
 

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