An obviously plugged 1792 US one-cent piece. A coin with a bust of a Native-American man bearing the words “Liberty Parent of Science & Indus.” on the obverse, and on the reverse, a laurel wreath with the words “United States of America,” “One Cent,” and “1/100.” A round hole has been punched through the middle and then refilled.
20 April 2022
Plugging is one of many ways to debase the value of a coin. Most commonly, a hole is punched in it and then filled with a base metal, such as lead. Alternatively, the coin could be cut in half, the valuable metal extracted from the center, and then filled and welded back together. While the practice of plugging dates to antiquity, use of the word plugged to describe a coin that had been adulterated in this fashion is an Americanism dating to the first half of the nineteenth century. While any denomination of coin could be plugged, the phrase plugged nickel would come to refer to the value of any worthless thing.
We can see a literal use of plugged in this advertisement offering a reward for the return of stolen goods found in the Massachusetts New-Bedford Mercury of 30 August 1822. The inventory of stolen items includes:
A much-more skillfully plugged 1795 US dollar coin. A US dollar coin with a bust of a woman, presumably Lady Liberty, with the word “Liberty” and bearing a date of 1795. The plug, a round circle about the “T” in “Liberty,” can just barely be detected.
About 10 dollars in silver change, among which was one plugged dollar. Whoever will secure the thief or thieves, so that they may be brought to justice, and return the goods, shall be entitled to the above reward, or one half for the goods alone.
The use of plugged nickel as a term for something that is worthless appears about a half century later. We have this description of the boxer John L. Sullivan that appears in Tennessee’s Knoxville Daily Journal on 7 July 1889:
Why, old man Gladstone, Bismarck, Harrison and James G. Blaine all rolled into one would not have received such worship. At that moment, Sullivan could have bought New Orleans, including the Louisiana state lottery and Generals Beauregard and Early for a plugged nickel.
Nowadays, of course, coins rarely contain any significant amount of precious metal, so plugging and other methods of debasing them have fallen out of use. And the phrase plugged nickel is a fossilized relic of an age long past.
Sources:
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, September 2006, s.v. plugged, adj.
“Sunday Chit-Chat.” Knoxville Daily Journal (Tennessee), 7 July 1889, 2. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
“Thirty Dollars Reward.” New-Bedford Mercury (Massachusetts), 30 August 1822, 3. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Photo credits: US one-cent coin: Stack’s Bowers auction catalog, unknown date. US one-dollar coin: unknown photographer. Fair use of copyrighted images to illustrate the topic under discussion.
Sources:
Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd Edition.