Gold Plated Racketeer Nickel

Minted from 1883 to 1912, the Liberty Head nickel was America’s 5-cent piece before the Buffalo Nickel came into use. The father of the Liberty nickel was A. Louden Snowden, Superintendent of the Philadelphia Mint. He instructed master engraver Charles E. Barber to design the new 5-cent piece, which Barber accomplished in a spare and simple style. The elegant design of this coin features Liberty’s head on the obverse and the Roman numeral V within a wreath on the reverse.

In 1882, the Mint endorsed Barber’s design, and samples were sent to Washington for approval by. To Snowden’s surprise, Treasury Secretary Charles Folger rejected the design. The secretary realized that the laws required “United States of America” to appear on the reverse of the coin, not the obverse. Folger had then consulted with President Chester Arthur, who agreed with Folger. Snowden then suggested that an exception should be made, but the secretary refused, and Barber needed to modify his design. The revised design was approved in 1883, and the coin was ready for struck.

We are offering a set of 5 mixed date Liberty Head nickels. The set is guaranteed to include the most famous Liberty nickel of all, the 1883 “Racketeer” Nickel. This coin was originally minted with the Roman numeral “V” on the reverse but without the word “cents”. This inspired con artists to plate the nickel in gold and try to pass it off as a more valuable $5 gold piece. Just 5 million of these coins were produced before the Mint realized its mistake. The rest of the 1883 nickels minted that year (16 million) all had the word “cents” added on. Each coin in this collection is in Good to Very Good condition and is encapsulated in clear plastic for protection. A free display case is included with each coin.

The latest release in the Presidential $1 Coin series honors our 20th President. Elected in 1880, James Garfield was the last elected President to be born in a log cabin.

Garfield was born in Ohio, worked hard to educate himself and graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts. He returned to Ohio to teach at Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (Hiram College) and became its president.

Elected to the state Senate in 1859 from the Republican Party, he also served in the Union Army rising to the rank of Major General. He was first elected to the U.S. Congress in 1863 and served there after President Lincoln asked him to resign his position on the battlefield. Garfield served nine consecutive terms in the House of Representatives.

In 1880 Garfield won the presidential election against his Democratic rival, Gen. Winfield Scott, by only 10,000 popular votes. In his inaugural address he called for rights for African-Americans, universal education and civil reforms. Garfield’s short presidency was also noted for attacking political corruption. He also brought back honor to the office lost during Reconstruction. His only executive order was to have a holiday on May 30 in order to decorate Civil War graves.

Garfield was an avid reader who owned a substantial library of over three thousand books. He also showed substantial math talent in developing a trapezoidal proof of Pythagoras’ Theory. That work was mentioned in the New England Journal of Education.

His tenure as president lasted only 200 days, the second shortest on record (William Harrison). James Garfield and his wife Lucretia had seven children.