The following was written by Brian.

We recently featured one of, if not the most, beautifully designed pieces of American currency one can find. By all accounts here at Northeast, it is an absolute work of art. 

One of just a handful of $5 Educational Notes we've offered, this one was by far the finest. Fr.270 is also by far the scarcest of the 3 $5 educational notes.

It seems that the days of care and beauty being put into our currency designs (and coin design too for that matter) are a thing of the past, so it is quite refreshing to look back and appreciate such art. This note sold fairly quickly as you can imagine, so I wanted to bring it back for your (and my!) viewing pleasure.

Considering the frequent use of the expressions "pinnacle of American banknote engraving" and "most beautiful piece of American currency" to characterize this note, it is understandable for one to develop a sense of cynicism regarding it. However, one look at this note dispels the hype. Like a fine painting, it urges you to reflect for a moment and appreciate it's beauty, detail and charm.
 

The following was written by Chris.

The 71^st Annual (my 29^th straight) FUN show was held in Orlando a couple of weeks ago. As with last year’s show, this was held the week after New Year’s Day, so all of us were able to ring in the new year without having to pack up and travel the next day to the show. The usual crew attended – Frank, Brian, Tom, and me.

Tom was able to get a room at his preferred hotel, the Hyatt Regency. The rest of us stayed at our usual Airbnb in a nearby condo complex. It’s an easy walk to the show when it’s held in the North Concourse. Unlike last year, the weather was incredible. It was sunny and we hit 80 a couple of the days, but it was still comfortably cool during our walks to and from the show in the mornings and evenings.

We got in Monday late afternoon, after a late jetBlue flight (my on-time streak with them came to screeching halt a few months ago). I had a hotel appointment with a wholesaler as soon as I got in, and that didn’t wrap up until a little after 10 o’clock that night. I was able to buy a nice group of coins.

While the FUN show put on another pre-show trading room on Tuesday and the first part of Wednesday, as with last year I never went in. I did the typical Ubering around for hotel business, which proved to be very worthwhile. Meanwhile, Frank had success with buying and selling in the trading room, while Brian was busy selling coins at his various appointments outside of the trading room.

The show opened at 2 pm on Wednesday, and it was dealer business only that day. The public came in on Thursday morning. The show was…BUSY. As with last year, there was a huge public turnout, except that it didn’t seem to slow down one bit on Friday. If you’ve read other show reports about this FUN, then this will all sound familiar. The continuing rise in precious metals certainly had to play a role, whether it was people looking to buy more bullion, or to cash out and convert that money into collectible coins.

No exaggeration, we had record sales for a FUN show. In fact, it is likely in the top three all-time for all shows, including the ANA. Buying was also a great success. It’s good that we sold as many coins as we did, because we needed the room to carry the newps back. The fellas bringing the inventory home were stuffed to the gills.

Numismatic summation - the show was incredible, and the market remained strong in virtually all areas of coins that we deal in. A great start to 2026!

If you could care less about what we ate, or did after-hours, or on the weekend, I understand and no need to read further. My feelings won’t be hurt (much). Food was a slight upgrade over last year. The dealer I was doing business with Monday night ordered some P.F. Changs, so I was a happy camper. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday was the usual Grubhub fare. Thursday night, however, was a treat. I connected with a friend of mine and we ate at an amazing tapas place called Café Tu Tu Tango (www.cafetututango.com). It was not my first time eating there, and it certainly won’t be my last. I highly recommend it!

As with most FUN shows, I stayed down in Orlando for the weekend to visit with college friends. This year they had a Greek family reunion going on. I’ve known most of the people there for decades, so it was not uncomfortable being one of only two people there without a lick of Greek blood in them.

I had a late flight scheduled out of Orlando on Sunday, but once they announced that the Patriots first playoff game since 2021 was scheduled for Sunday night, I changed my flight so that I could make it home for the game. Fortunately, my jetBlue flight was on time, so I made it to the house 30 minutes before kickoff. Needless to say, the flight change was a good decision. 😊

We’ll be at the summer FUN, so if you plan on attending, be sure to find us!

I'm the jackass in the back hoisting the Greek flag with a backscratcher. 

We just finished having dinner...outside...in January! Decent place, not so decent service.

This DeLorean was parked in our airbnb neighborhood. I had to take a photo.

Here's the Super Mario Bros plane on which I flew home.

Gold breaks $400. Incredible.

P.S. And silver was $5.45!

The following was written by Frank.

Francis LeRoy Henning was a notorious counterfeiter of U.S. coins and currency based out of Erial, New Jersey. Henning began his counterfeiting career in the 1930s, when he printed $1 silver certificates. The Secret Service caught up to Henning and he was arrested in Boston in 1939. This would not be the last arrest for Henning.

Henning is more remembered for the hundreds of thousands of nickels that he counterfeited in the 1950s. Henning counterfeited Jefferson Nickels dated 1939, 1944, 1946, 1947, and 1953; these are referred to as Henning Nickels. In 1954, Henning purchased a large quantity of the alloy needed to make his counterfeit coins from the Scovill Manufacturing Company, which just so happened to be the same supplier of the U.S. Mint. Henning had rented a building in Erial, NJ where he used his DIY coin press to strike counterfeit nickels.

Henning would have likely gotten away with his scheme, except for a major blunder. In 1942, the U.S. Mint changed the composition of its nickels from a cupronickel alloy to a copper, silver, and manganese alloy as nickel was needed for wartime purposes. All of these new “silver nickels” have a large mintmark above Monticello on the reverse. Henning either neglected this key detail or was oblivious to it, as his 1944 dated nickels were not of the same composition, nor did they have a mintmark above Monticello. Another identifying factor for many Henning Nickels is the R in Pluribus on the reverse. Many Henning Nickels will have a hole in the lower left side of the R in Pluribus.

Image courtesy of Error-Ref.com

Henning claimed that he had deposited $5,000 worth of his nickels into various banks and posed as an owner of vending machines to not cause any suspicion. Henning must have caught wind that the authorities were after him, so he dumped approximately 200,000 nickels in Cooper’s Creek in New Jersey and another 200,000 nickels in the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania. Just 40,000 of these nickels were recovered. These 40,000 nickels were melted down and coined into legitimate nickels by the Mint.

In October of 1955, Henning was arrested. He was sentenced to 3 years in jail and a $5,000 fine. But, when the judge found out that Henning had also planned to counterfeit $5 bills, he added an additional 3 years to his sentence.

Image courtesy of Newman Numismatic Portal

Henning nickels have grown in popularity and increased in price over recent years as more people are learning about this thrilling story.

Sources:

https://books.google.com/books?id=460uAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://www.winsociety.org/newsletter/vol-11/henning-nickel.html 

https://www.error-ref.com/henning-counterfeit-nickel/

https://coinweek.com/a-collectible-counterfeit-the-story-of-henning-nickels/

https://blackcatmining.com/blogs/reference/henning-counterfeit-nickel