Best Find To Date!!! Thanks Henning

jleffert

Junior Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2013
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38
I just got home for spring break so I thought I'd take a trip back to my boy scout camp that I've been detecting. It was really muddy and some snow still on the ground so it limited the detecting area. I headed back to a spot that has coughed up my my oldest silver coin as well as some others. I hit the tree line and just under some leaves on the surface I found a 1960 Roosevelt dime.Awesome! Just a couple feet away I found my oldest wheat (1914). I continued to a triangular spot of grass just across the walkway, no more than 50 square feet, where I proceeded to find 38 quarters all down about 1 inch? Also in that area I found a 1945 Mercury dime at 1.5 inches and literally on the surface was this 1944 nickel.
I took a closer look at it and realized it lacked the large mintmark on the back. So I took it home, did a little research and found out its a counterfeit. In 1954, a man named Francis LeRoy Henning from New Jersey made several hundred thousand counterfeit nickels. He dumped the majority of them into the river and they estimate that about 100,000 made it into circulation. Needless to say he was arrested. Now the only downside is, its probable the roughest nickel I have ever dug, but nevertheless its the coolest. If you guys have any idea of the possible value, I would love to know, I know they're hard to come by. Thanks- John
 

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That's a great hunt. Everytime I find a 1914 Wheat I try to will it to have a D mint mark! Congrats on an awesome hunt!
 
Congrats on a great hunt, especially the Henning nickel. I've read the story on him, but can't help with value. I'm pretty sure that coin is worth more than 5 cents though.
 
That's a great story with the counterfeit nickels. I suppose in 54 a nickel could get you more than it can today. Very interesting twist to your hunt, thanks for posting.
 
That's a great find indeed. I had never heard of this story before now. I just spent the last half hour reading different articles about the Henning fakes. There are other dates out there too, not just the 1944. These are harder to tell if they are fake since they did not have the large mint mark. Very interesting story for sure. Part of me thinks the man is genius for finding a low profile way to make 2 cents profit across hundreds of thousands of nickels (it cost him 3 cents per nickel). The other part of me thinks he was a complete moron for using a war nickel as his obverse on one of his dies. Had he used any year other than a war nickel there is no telling how long he could have keep it up. We may never have known.
 
I was thinking about this nickel and wondering if it would be illegal to sell a Henning nickel since it is counterfeit? If so, would it make it valueless in the sense that it could not be sold? I would love to find one and if I did would never want to sell it, just curious.
 
Congrats on the Henning nickel! I had no idea they where out there. That is better then the 2 sweet silvers and wheat. :cool:
 
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