QUOTE(Fjord @ Jul 28 2005, 03:58 AM)
While waiting in line to have ANACS take a gander at a coin I struck up a conversation with the person behind me. Showed me two seated liberty dollars, one 1865, another 1848. These were his pocket pieces. He asked me, see anything weird?
Well...
Despite different dates, they had identical gouges on the front in Liberty's shield. On the reverse they had some identical wear. and despite looking like a VF coin due to wear, the dates were oddly sharp, and the "6" in 1865 looked like it was a different typeface than the other numbers.
Our fellow ANACS customer said he found these at a flea market being sold side by side.
Scary thing: before looking at the date of the 1865, the only clue I had that these were truly fake was the identical damage and wear patterns on both coins. Without a twin to compare with, I'd most likely have been snookered by the fake.
This fellow said they were even about the right weight, and made a nice silver "ring" if dropped.
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There are a lot of fake double eagles out there, some are very close while others are a complete joke! I bought a fake 1904 double eagle from Europe, and it was quite close, but a review of the surfaces soon revealed it to be a fake. That one might have come from the middle east, as there was apparently a person there counterfeiting double eagles back in the 1960s, and from what I understand, he was very talented. Some of those might be collectible, but I have no interest. I would probably be more interested in collecting the really bad counterfeits, like the one I saw for sale on eBay from Europe, it was a 1919 Saint. Of course there was the minor detail of no Saints being minted from 1916-1920, but it could still be real right?
Coins like that, which are obvious fakes would be very interesting to collect, unfortunately most people selling them want the same price as a geniune coin!
