No April Foolin’

 

I’m a coin collector.  My collection consists mostly of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters from the 20^th century, with a sprinkling of round-money from earlier and later.  One I was able to pick up a few years back was an 1883 Liberty Head Nickel.

Liberty Head Nickels were first minted in that year to mild acclaim…except by one man.   Josh Tatum noticed a quirk in the minting that he could capitalize on to make a significant profit.  He was discovered, arrested, and tried, but he was acquitted and never went to jail for it.

And I’m not kidding.

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My research didn’t disclose whether Josh Tatum was a coin collector or not but, in those days when most people worked hard all day for less than $2 in pay, I’m sure he paid more attention to his money than your average person does nowadays.

When the Liberty Head Nickel came out in 1883 one aspect most people were not particularly surprised to see was that it was issued with the Roman Numeral V (for five) on it, but nothing indicating that it was five cents.  Now, the 5¢ piece contained that value in copper/nickel alloy (75% copper to 25% nickel), while the $5 coin was minted in gold, and contained $5 worth of that precious metal.  Though a similar version of Miss Liberty adorned both coins and they were similar in size, anyone could tell them apart by their silver or gold color.

You already see where I’m going, don’t you?

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When the resourceful Mr. Tatum saw the similarity between the two coins, he immediately thought of a friend of his who was a jeweler in Boston.  Tatum visited the friend and asked if he could gold plate coins.

The friend confirmed that he could.

The excited Josh invested $50 to buy 1000 of the new 5¢ pieces and took them to his pal for gold plating.  The nickels were soon shiny and gold.

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Tatum took one of his nickels to a tobacconist and pointed to a 5¢ cigar.  The shopkeeper handed the smoke to Josh and asked for a nickel.  The customer handed over one of his “special” nickels and the seller looked at it for barely a moment before counting out $4.95 in change.

Josh had multiplied the value of his coin by 100 times!

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Encouraged, Tatum took the remaining gold-plated coins around the city, stopping at shops here and there, and indicating that he wanted to buy various items priced at 5¢ apiece.

Within a week, he had increased that $50 investment to $950 in cash plus all the items he had bought to get that change.  Remember, $2 a day was a good wage in those days.  That’s $10 per week so Tatum had just made over two years’ wages in only one week!

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Josh quickly invested $250 of that profit in 5000 more of the new nickels, and had his jeweler friend gold plate them just as he had the earlier coins.  Not wanting to raise too many eyebrows by trying to pass them all in one location, Tatum took a trip between Boston and New York, stopping frequently to purchase items priced at 5¢ with his value-added nickels.

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No one has good luck 100% of the time, and our gold-plating friend was no different.  At some point someone discovered the overvalued nickels and reported them.  The story made the newspapers and soon hundreds of Tatum’s dupes reported him.

Josh Tatum was arrested.

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At the trial Josh’s lawyer asked each witness if Josh had lied to them.  Not one single shopkeeper said he had asked them for change.  On the contrary, he had just given them the nickel in payment for something inexpensive…something for which a nickel would have been a reasonable amount to pay.  In each and every case, it was the salesperson who voluntarily gave him the excessive amount of change for the nickel.

They had cheated themselves.

It might be hard to believe that none of the sellers chose to lie and say that Tatum had asked for change…except for one thing.  Josh was a deaf-mute and his lawyer pointed that fact out early in the trial.

Further, at that stage in U.S. history there was no law to prohibit the plating of American coinage.

The prosecution had no recourse; Josh went free.

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Because of the Josh Tatum case the U.S. government was prompted to pass a law making it illegal to pass plated American coins.  There would be no more gold plated nickels passed off as $5 gold pieces.  In addition, the U.S. mint added the word “cents” to nickels the next year and has done so every year since.

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There was another legacy of Mr. Tatum’s action.  Because of the case a new expression entered the English language.  In fact you’ve probably used the phrase yourself.  To this day, when one person tries to fool another, especially in a joking manner, there is a reasonably good chance that the person being fooled will say, “Oh, you must be joshing me.”

Guess which Josh you were referencing.

It’s true.  Even though today is April Fools’ Day, I assure you, it’s true!

I am NOT joshing you.

 

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(above, left) The 1883 $5 gold coin.  (right) one of the 5¢ pieces that Josh Tatum modified.  Obviously the plating has worn off a bit but, with just a little imagination one can see why they easily passed for the $5 coin.

 

(below, top) The 1883 5¢ coin in its original condition and (below, bottom) the $5 gold piece.  Without the gold plating on the nickel it’s easy to tell the difference.  On the back you’ll notice that the two coins were not differentiated by dollars or cents.  Mr. Tatum caused the mint to change that.