Where Did It Come From?
You might think that this would be an open-and-shut case: after all, Josh doesn't seem to have tried to disguise himself in any way, and I don't imagine it was possible for him to hide all those coins when the police arrived to arrest him. As it turns out, however, Josh Tatum was acquitted on all charges, because none of the witnesses against him- and there were many- could testify that he had told them that the coins were five dollar ones. The reason for this was that Tatum was deaf and mute, so would indicate that he wanted a 5 cent item and then place a coin which was legitimately a five cent piece on the counter to pay for it. Could he help it if clerks kept giving him $4.95 which he never asked for? Whatever you might think of this defense, it obviously worked.
Well, as a result of this fiasco, the mint was forced to halt production of the Liberty Head nickel until the design could be changed to include the word "cents" on it, as seen below. And that's how a lot of people in Nevada, the justice system, and the U.S. mint ended up being "joshed".