Hi, I need help to determine if this trade dollar is authentic or not. I have compared the images with others of PCGS website, and i found some differences, like the number 1 on the date, and in the word LIBERTY. The coins is on eBay now. thanks.!
Fake. Spacing of the lettering on the entire coin is wrong. Stars crudely struck. Rims have been notched with a tool, and not struck. Olive branch is crudely struck. Date is in wrong position, and numbers inconsistent with each other. E Pluribus Unum incorrectly spaced. In God We Trust not accurately positioned. An average fake. Pass on the coin for sure--it is also damaged, even if it had been genuine, which it is not, 95% likely.
I'm on the fence . The rounded letters could caused by a LDS . MorganDude , how can you say the rim is notched with a tool ? Though I wouldn't buy this coin , It has a decent chance of being real . IMHO For positions , try here . http://blog.davidlawrence.com/index.php/1877-s-trade-dollar-reverse-varieties/
Here's another great reference for the '77-S , it clearly shows that the date is in the correct position for one of the die marriages. http://blog.davidlawrence.com/index.php/collecting-us-trade-dollars-by-die-marriage/
Here's a thread with information about spotting fake trade dollars. I really not sure what morgandude11 is talking about, only one of those is an indicator of a fake discussed in this thread and I don't see that problem in this coin. http://www.cointalk.com/threads/how-do-you-spot-fake-trade-dollars-anyway.63695/
Here's what I see. The front and reverse are both type 2 which is correct for 1877. Rim appears uniform. Stars appear correct. I see no signs of pitting or pimples. Some of the dentils on the obverse look odd, especially in the upper left. The shadow around the entire dentils looks odd too. I'm not very experienced in this coin. This is probably the most counterfeited coin ever. Some of the counterfeits are extremely well done. Buying raw, even the most experienced trade dollar collectors have been fooled. Trade dollars come in fake slabs too! Good Luck! If you do buy it, have someone knowledgeable check it right away.
Nothing about it seems right the motto in god we trust totally wrong her face looks wrong the dentils rounded and mushy and the details look wrong it jumped out as a fake the second I saw it
Just a thought, but perhaps they want to learn and/or engage in an honest discussion? And for the sake of the discussion, here is another example for comparison.
No, you are right. It is a good idea to learn by example from other folks--however, as we all hopefully know, the Trade Dollar is the most counterfeited coin in the realm. It is best to take an extremely skeptical approach to ANY Trade Dollar that isn't slabbed, as they're valuable enough to be in plastic, even the common dates. I was giving concrete examples of the obvious details that were indicating it to be a counterfeit. And yes, they can notch the rims with a tool--it is done all the time on low quality fakes.
The reason I asked is I didn't know if you meant the reeds or the dentils . But the ops coin dentils are evenly spaced , which is usually not the case with hand tooled reeding or dentils . Usually if done by hand some will be larger or smaller and where the person started there will be an overlap . Besides the shape , these seem fine in that respect .
I'm just wondering why you think it's fake ? The date is spot on to one of the die marriages , and we all know how pics can distort reality , especially a coin that may have been struck with Late die state dies . I am not advising you to buy this coin as I wouldn't , only because it's an unslabbed coin on ebay . But I ask so we all can learn from each other . Also with BooksB4Coins pics looks to be close to the ops coin . Now what happened to that one star , I have no idea .
