The Fake 1944 Nickel

[danhughes]

[img]http://assets.libsyn.com/content/562559/img]

Pity the stupid counterfeiter.

Francis Leroy Henning had a brilliant idea - instead of counterfeiting something valuable (he had already been busted for making fake $5.00 bills), why not make some fake nickels? Who pays attention to small change? Who would notice?

Unfortunately, he made a small mistake. And ended up dumping 400,000 counterfeit nickels into two rivers. Most of them are still there.

This one is indeed hard to believe.

Listen at http://thetreasurecorner.com, show #122.

[Sal66]

When were these faked ? Wouldn't they be all rusty by now and what State did that idiot dump the coins in ? How many did you find if there are that many dumped in the river unless it's a large river.

[danhughes]

Listen to the podcast! Your questions are answered there (it's short - under 4 minutes).

As for getting rusty, the counterfeits contained less than one-half of one percent of iron, so I doubt that they show any rust.

[Sal66]

| Thanks Dan for the story . I'll have to check my nickels and see if I have any 1944 as I have never logged them . I must have around 100 from that era and I'll see if I have any 1944 . If people are paying that much for a counterfeit then it's worth trying .
One thing I could never understand is why counterfeits and restrikes are sometimes still worth money, like the Fugio re-strikes for example in 1859. Then there's my favorite's, the error coins because most of them aren't listed with a price and it's fun to see what people are willing to pay for a messed up Coin.