2021 Niue 2oz $5 Antique Finish Gilded Silver Coin - "The Gangsters" Al Capone

2021 Niue 2oz $5 Antique Finish Gilded Silver Coin - "The Gangsters" Al Capone

The coin was produced in a limited edition of 500 pieces. First in series.

Murder, extortion, bootlegging, prostitution, bribery, and tax evasion – the life of a gangster is a busy one. Nobody epitomises that more than the classic mobster, Alphonse Gabriel Capone, more popularly known as Al. Born in New York City in 1899, Capone joined the Five Points Gang at an early age, working as a bouncer in brothels, but it wasn’t long before he headed off to Chicago with a promotion. Becoming the bodyguard to Johnny Torrio, head of a bootlegging syndicate, he was in the perfect position to take over when Torrio retired after a close assassination attempt.

Capone rose to the challenge, expanding the business, and becoming a celebrity in the process, mixing with the politicians and musicians of the time, coming to be seen as a modern-day Robin Hood. Whereas Robin Hood only had to deal with the Sheriff of Nottingham, Al came up with the meanest, nastiest, most powerful opponent of all time – the taxman… Convicted on five counts of tax evasion in 1931, he served eight years, but was already suffering from neurosyphilis on release, and became increasingly debilitated, dying in early 1947.