Bought a CigarBox of Jefferson Nickels 1938-60 Guess what I found

Smittys

Needs an acetone Bath

SilverEagles92

Holy Henning Batman!

sinin1

a mule? or a Henning?

carl

Why an Acetone bath. Sort of a nice color you normally don't find on just anything. Reminds me of the Copper piping in my basement.

garrynot

OK I will ask the question, What is a Henning?

tightbudget

crazyhounddog

Not a collector of Jefferson nickels, so what the deal with this one? Can you let us in what is so special about this nickel. Thanks....

GRANDAM

<< <i>OK I will ask the question, What is a Henning? >>



Henning counter-fitted a bunch of 1944 Nickels. It is easily identified my the lack of the large mint mark which should have been present on a silver war nickel.

bolivarshagnasty

No large mintmark above Monticello. Don't give it a bath! Shag

crazyhounddog

That's nice to know....Thanks.....Now I know what to look for!!!
And by the way ......Very, very cool coin

messydesk

There's a footnote in the Red Book (or at least there had been for many years) under the war nickels that says that 1944 nickels without a mintmark are counterfeit. The coin pictured is one of those counterfeits, known as a "Henning nickel" or "Henning counterfeit," being named after the counterfeiter. I would assume a Henning counterfeit is now worth more than the genuine article as a collectible contemporary counterfeit.

seanq

<< <i>

<< <i>OK I will ask the question, What is a Henning? >>



Henning counter-fitted a bunch of 1944 Nickels. It is easily identified my the lack of the large mint mark which should have been present on a silver war nickel. >>



Also identifiable by the broken lower left leg of the R in PLURIBUS. Nice pull, congrats.


Sean Reynolds

coindeuce

A large quantity of the Henning counterfeits were tossed into a river (East River, N.Y.?) by the forger while he was on the run from the Feds after being targeted. They've never been recovered.

seanq

<< <i>There's a footnote in the Red Book (or at least there had been for many years) under the war nickels that says that 1944 nickels without a mintmark are counterfeit. The coin pictured is one of those counterfeits, known as a "Henning nickel" or "Henning counterfeit," being named after the counterfeiter. I would assume a Henning counterfeit is now worth more than the genuine article as a collectible contemporary counterfeit. >>




Last time I checked they were selling for $20-30 on eBay... that is if you could get your auction to end without the eBay police shutting you down for selling a counterfeit.


Sean Reynolds

ElKevvo

Nice find!

K

JedPlanchet

Seems like a counterfeiter would get a really low rate of return vs. effort by making nickels, why did he do it? Also seems like a really boneheaded error to make, since war nickels had already been released for over a year.

If it were me, I'd have focused on $20s

metalmeister

leave it as is. Nice piece of history.
5c could buy alot back them and would be unnoticed except to a coin collector

garrynot

<< <i>

<< <i>OK I will ask the question, What is a Henning? >>



Henning counter-fitted a bunch of 1944 Nickels. It is easily identified my the lack of the large mint mark which should have been present on a silver war nickel. >>



Henning wasn't too bright then. But its a nice conversation piece.

laserart

<< <i>

<< <i>There's a footnote in the Red Book (or at least there had been for many years) under the war nickels that says that 1944 nickels without a mintmark are counterfeit. The coin pictured is one of those counterfeits, known as a "Henning nickel" or "Henning counterfeit," being named after the counterfeiter. I would assume a Henning counterfeit is now worth more than the genuine article as a collectible contemporary counterfeit. >>




Last time I checked they were selling for $20-30 on eBay... that is if you could get your auction to end without the eBay police shutting you down for selling a counterfeit.


Sean Reynolds >>






So describe it as a replica.

JJM

<< <i>

<< <i>OK I will ask the question, What is a Henning? >>



Henning counter-fitted a bunch of 1944 Nickels. It is easily identified my the lack of the large mint mark which should have been present on a silver war nickel. >>



yeah, and a crapload dumped in the river I believe

WoodenJefferson

no dippy.....leave as is! Let the copper shine through!

dirtybird

Neat coin. congrats on the find.

joecopper

I agree leave it alone

stinkinlincoln

Do these sell? What would the value be on something like this? I dont follow this series, but a somewhat modern fake is pretty cool.

SaorAlba

I am jealous, I wish I could find a Henning.

airplanenut

<< <i>Seems like a counterfeiter would get a really low rate of return vs. effort by making nickels, why did he do it? Also seems like a really boneheaded error to make, since war nickels had already been released for over a year.

If it were me, I'd have focused on $20s >>

One possible reason is that a $20 would be scrutinized much more than a nickel. After all, you just admitted that you don't think anyone would bother to counterfeit a nickel. Similarly, I'm sure it's much easier to pass a good fake $1 or $5 bill vs. a $20 or higher.

DuPapa

Also identifiable by the broken lower left leg of the R in PLURIBUS.

My Henning has a normal R





Henning claims to have made 6 different reverse dies to go with the 6 different obverse dies. But the hole in the R seems to be the most common.
Besides the 44 no P, which got him caught, he also made counterfeit nickels dated 1939, 1946, 1947 and 1953 which are hard to find with the only the holey R variaty being easy to spot.

It is estimated that more than 100,000 of Henning's nickels reached circulation. Henning dumped another 200,000 nickels in Copper Creek, New Jersey, of which only 14,000 were recovered. Another 200,000 are thought to have been dumped in the Schuylkill River. It is claimed he had bought his metal from the same source as the mint paying approximately 3 1/2 cents per blank. Leftover blanks seized from him were actually coined into legal nickels at the Philadelphia Mint in 1956, after adding the required amount of nickel....

When caught, Henning was sentenced to 3 years in jail, and had to pay a $5,000 fine.

leothelyon

Do a search here on Henning nickels, lots of good read and hopefully the pics are still there in some of those threads.


Leo

Robb

<< <i>

<< <i>Seems like a counterfeiter would get a really low rate of return vs. effort by making nickels, why did he do it? Also seems like a really boneheaded error to make, since war nickels had already been released for over a year.

If it were me, I'd have focused on $20s >>

One possible reason is that a $20 would be scrutinized much more than a nickel. After all, you just admitted that you don't think anyone would bother to counterfeit a nickel. Similarly, I'm sure it's much easier to pass a good fake $1 or $5 bill vs. a $20 or higher. >>



Interestingly enough, Henning was a known counterfeiter as he had previously served time for faking $5 bills. He chose nickels based solely on convenience- he had cheap and easy access to the material and machinery. The feds would drop by every so often to check up on him, sorta like probation. He was a machinist by trade so he was able to fly under the radar and quickly cover up any counterfeiting projects when the feds came around.

He was not a coin collector and 1944 was not the original date that he counterfeited. He only switched to multiple dates after a bank teller thinking out loud mentioned how odd it was that Henning was depositing a hoard of nickels with the same date. He was caught by members of the local coin club. Initially the authorities blew them off, then the mint blew them off and after some follow up the two agencies finally agreed that they were in fact counterfeits.

Henning claimed to have dumped nickels in the river when he knew that the feds were on to him but there is no evidence of it being true. It's only his word. Many metal detector clubs have searched the area over the years and have come up with nothing.