Lot 710
1883. Without "CENTS". PCGS graded MS-67. Lovely light golden toning. Blazing luster. Keen-edge detail on all devices. Pop 21; none finer at PCGS. (PCGS # 3841) .
Historic Account: Breen, in his encyclopedia, describes this new arrival on the American scene in his usual colorful language: "Barber made working hubs and dies, from which came almost 5.5 million 1883 No CENTS coins. At which point, as Herman Melville put it, "the whole powder train went up." People noticed that the coins had no mention of CENTS, and began saving these "mistake" nickels on the correct assumption that the design would be changed to incorporate the necessary word. (Unsurprisingly, they are still plentiful in high grades, mostly VF to AU.) But worse was to follow.
Unscrupulous persons reeded the edges of many of these coins, gold plated them, and palmed them off on the unwary as new $5 gold pieces. At least one famous court case reportedly involved a deaf-mute, Josh Tatum, who did the actual "shoving" so that his victims could never testify under oath that he had called the coins anything whatever. Thousands of the original "Racketeer" nickels, with partly rubbed-off gold wash, survive today; many with reeded edges, some with plain. Other parties, aiming at coin collectors, have within the last 30 years gilt ordinary centless nickels and sold them as "Racketeer" coins, thereby exposing themselves to this epithet, but doubtless crying all the way to the bank.
Protests multiplied. Mint Director Snowden at once ordered Barber to modify the reverse Barber's first and better idea was to place the word CENTS on a scroll across V; this was inexplicably rejected in favor of the more crowded arrangement with CENTS below and the Latin motto in minute letters above. However, the centless nickels were not withdrawn, many reportedly going to the Mississippi Valley and the West Coast, where minor coinage was always in short supply: Gibbs {1983}. Only the proliferation of the new type with CENTS finally ended the gilding racket.
Estimated Value $2,500 - 2,600.
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