1883 Racketeer Liberty Head V Nickel • Type 1 No Cents • Uncirculated Gold Plated Coin in a Graded Slab • Certified ICG Genuine Authentic

PLEASE NOTE: actual ICG certificate number received may vary from pictures

A "racketeer nickel" refers to the 1883 Liberty Head nickel, specifically the version that initially lacked the word "CENTS" on the reverse, which allowed con artists to gold-plate them and pass them off as $5 gold piece

According to one tall tale, the racketeer nickel was developed after the U.S. mint issued the Liberty nickel in 1883. On one side it had the head of Liberty. On the obverse, it simply had the Roman numeral V and nowhere did it spell out its value as 5 cents.

As it so happened, the nickel was close in size to the $5 gold piece, which had a similar design. So, as the story goes, a man named Josh Tatum began gold-plating the nickels and passing them off as $5 gold coins, for instance buying a 5-cent cigar then placing the coin on the counter and getting $4.95 in change.

When he was finally caught, he was exonerated since he was unable to speak, and thus never actually misrepresented the currency.