THE NOTORIOUS FRANCIS HENNING

One of the most prolific counterfeiters of the 20th Century (not counting the Nazis) was Francis Leroy Henning (1891-1968), who made over a half-million pieces of phony money. Unlike those who favored $20 or $100 bills, Henning forged nickels.

In the 1930's, Henning plied his trade with the more conventional paper currency. He printed fake $5 bills at a time when $5 had the buying power of about $120 today. Unfortunately for Henning, U.S. paper currency is very difficult to counterfeit, and Henning was caught and served three years for this misdeed.

Henning thereafter figured that folks would be far less likely to scrutinize a nickel to see if it was fake--especially when the nickel was in circulated condition complete with the usual scratches and wear associated with use. In the early 1950s, he fabricated obverse and reverse dies from a used nickel and submitted a roll of coins for deposit in a local New Jersey bank. When the teller casually observed that it was unusual to have a roll of circulated coins all of the same date, Henning realized that he would have to expand his forgeries to include a variety of examples for future transactions.

Henning thus created a series of nickels dated 1939, 1944, 1946, 1947, and 1953 as well as one additional date which has yet to be determined. He purchased his metal alloy from the same source as that used by the U.S. mint (at a cost of about 3.5 cents per nickel), and his products were superficially pretty realistic, although they often, but not always, weighed about 5.4 grams compared to the legitimate nickel's weight of about 5.0 grams. Most of his examples also contained minor defects (such as a small hole in the "R" of "PLURIBUS") which would not be spotted by a normal person acquiring a used nickel in commerce.

How did Henning's latest criminal acts get discovered? Well, indirectly, you can credit the Empire of Japan when it dragged the USA into WWII. The conflict consumed prodigious quantities of copper and, in order to free up supplies, the Treasury in 1942 started making nickels containing 35% silver and reduced amounts of copper. In an effort to make the silver nickels easier to sort later on if they were eventually to be pulled from circulation, the government for these coins moved a teeny-tiny mint mark from the side of Monticello and replaced it with a huge one* over the dome of the building. In addition, the softer silver nickels, once in circulation, wore down quickly, developed a characteristic greasy feel to them, and displayed a dark dingy smeary patina which would further distinguish them from their pre- and postwar cupro-nickel brethren.

Henning's 1944 nickels did not sport the huge mint mark and further were obviously not made of silver. The authorities quickly figured out that something was funny after both a coin collector and a bank teller separately reported receiving the suspicious money. Henning got nervous and tossed about 200,000 fake nickels into Copper Creek in New Jersey and another 200,000 in the Schuylkill river in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service and local law enforcement retrieved some of the submerged coins (although probably not most of them) as well as the unused metal from Henning's shop and eventually melted them down for use in minting legitimate nickels. 

For his efforts, Henning received a $5,000 fine and a three-year prison sentence in 1955. He also lost his shirt, as the approximately 100,000 nickels he had placed into circulation were totally inadequate to compensate him for the cost of the alloy he had purchased and the $5,000 fine--let alone the three years of imprisonment. 

Nowadays, the price of the metal in a nickel exceeds five cents, so it is unlikely there ever will be a repeat of Henning's performance.

What about those folks who were defrauded by a Henning nickel? If they had kept the coin, they now have a collectible which is worth far more than five cents and which in fact might sell for $100+. However, the issue of whether or not it is legal to hold, even for non-fraudulent purposes, an example of U.S. counterfeit money is not one which I am prepared or equipped to address.

For further information, please see this article from COINWEEK.

*Parenthetically, this was the first time that a U.S. coin displayed a "P" (for "Philadelphia") mint mark. At the time of this writing, the value of the silver in a single wartime nickel is approaching $2.00, and collectors and speculators have already long ago removed them from circulation.

A TYPICAL GENUINE 1944 SILVER NICKEL