 |
| By Brandon Grossardt for the image; Charles Barber for the coin design. (Actual coin) [Public domain, GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
In 1883, the U.S. Mint issued a newly designed nickel. It featured the Roman numeral "V" for "five" on the reverse as the only indication of value. Josh Tatum, a deaf-mute, gold-plated large numbers of the coins when they were first released and gave them to shopkeepers without comment (obviously) to make small purchases. In many cases, the store clerk believed that he was handed a $5.00 gold piece and gave Josh back over four dollars in change. Josh would graciously accept the change, again without comment.
Although arrested, Josh was acquitted at trial, as the judge bought his lawyer's argument that Josh never specifically stated that the coins were anything other than a nickel or that he was entitled to more than a nickel's worth of change. His name lives on, however, in the use of the term "josh" as a synonym for joking or for kidding someone.
The design of the nickel was quickly changed so that it thereafter read "V CENTS."
No comments:
Post a Comment