Fjord Posted July 28, 2005 Report Share Posted July 28, 2005 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burks Posted July 28, 2005 Report Share Posted July 28, 2005 Very interesting. Reminds me of the show I watched on the History Channel. Some guy was able to come within 1% of the metal composition of casino slot tokens. No one could tell the difference even if you dropped it. They were so good that a ton are still in circulation. I'd keep those kind of counterfeits just because of the quality of the coin. Wasn't there someone who counterfeited $20 gold coins and those became REALLY collectable? Pretty neat story. Did he mention what he bought them for and what ANACS said? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottishmoney Posted July 28, 2005 Report Share Posted July 28, 2005 There is a story going around on the PCGS boards right now about some early 20th century counterfiets of USA Morgan Dollars from the late 19th century and early 20th century that are so close that many were certified as authentic and encapsulated by the grading services. These coins were minted early on and were intended to circulate and not dupe collectors. Apparently they were made at a profit to their creators, since silver prices were lower and they had a bit of a profit margin. How were they found? By the same imperfections being noticed on coins of different dates, it had something to do with bumps in the reverse dies. These coins having been encapsulated are sure to be highly collectible as forgeries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtryka Posted July 28, 2005 Report Share Posted July 28, 2005 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. 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottishmoney Posted July 28, 2005 Report Share Posted July 28, 2005 When I was in Hamburg, Germany a few years ago I bought a 1910 J 20 Marks coin from Hamburg. Problem was, that there were none of that date actually minted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mediccoin Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 It is hard enough grading coins, much less figuring out a fake coin. I guess I will keep on studing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccg Posted July 31, 2005 Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 I always found the mid-60s gold counterfeits from the Mid-East to be interesting since they were done for trade purposes. Most are generally pretty good in quality, and would easily pass as good on a first glance as everything was good (and the weight/fineness is usually a bit better than the genuine!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gxseries Posted July 31, 2005 Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 wow... never knew Middle East used to counterfeit such coins... I guess they must be "talented" because... I mean, the Arabic alphabet font is too artistic that just to master it is some form of art itself... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fjord Posted August 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2005 Pretty neat story. Did he mention what he bought them for and what ANACS said? He didn't mention what he paid for them. With any luck, he paid peanuts for them and told the seller what they were. He wasn't actually waiting to show ANACS those coins; he had some other coins he'd just bought and wanted an opinion on. Incidentally, the coin I took to ANACs had been sold to me by 28plain, and his grade was dead on, if not a little conservative. ...posting from the caribbean... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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