1883 n/c "Racketeer Nickel" Liberty Nickel 5c Grades. The racketeer nickel is one of the most infamous coins of all time. It was developed by unscrupulous opportunists after the U.S. mint issued the Liberty nickel in 1883. On one side it had the head of Liberty. On the obverse, it simply had the Roman numeral V and nowhere did it spell out its value as 5 cents. As it so happened, the nickel was close in size to the $5 gold piece, which had a similar design. Thus, many 1883 "no cents" nickels were gold plated and often successfully passed off as $5 gold coins in the first year of their issue. Due to this, the mint added the word "cents" the following year.