1805 half cent

Modern fake direct from China.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1805-Draped...674?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f4ed04132

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Wow. As fakes go, that's pretty good. They butchered the portrait though, as usual. That would be really deceptive worn down to F15 or so.

 

A moron trying his luck, a bunch of other morons bidding on an obvious fake, $1.5 on Ali.

 

Really? At first glance I thought "Oh wow, that is awful." But maybe I'm just a cynic.

 

It's way better than a lot of "1804" dollars out there.

 

Heck they're even putting verdigris on it to take your attention away from what's wrong .

 

Nice touch, right? They should have left it in the rock tumbler a little longer.

 

You see that on a lot of fakes of copper/bronze/brass coins. They come out of the oven looking like that. Probably the result of whatever chemicals are added to the surface before applying heat.
Most notable on fakes of old Chinese cash coins, like these: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Chin...ne-antiques-not-a-counterfeit/1236244152.html

 

I'd say it's a pretty good fake. Its obverse seems to match Cohen-4 and its reverse seems to match Cohen-3 very well.

http://www.coinfacts.com/half_cents/1805_half_cents/1805_half_cent_varieties.htm

 

That's something , it even says , not a counterfeit . Yeah right !!!!!

 

How did you id it as a fake?

inquiring minds want to know!

 

I'd like to know what the big "tell" is too. The only difference I can find between this fake and Cohen-4 is that the zeros in 1/200 look a little bit different. Other than that, it's pretty much a perfect match. It even has the tiny die chip by the second "A" in "America."

 

Since I don't collect large cents , I have no idea as it looked good to me . But who else would AT a high grade 1804 1/2 cent .

 

I'm not familiar with the specific varieties, but it's pretty interesting if they used the obverse and reverse of two different coins.

 

I don't look much into specific "tells" with modern copies as the details are generally correct. What usually makes it not look right are differences in surface appearance, artificial patina, and differences in depth/relief in features, like can be seen on the bust; area around eye and bridge of nose, between some hair strands seems to cut much deeper down towards the level of the fields than it should. Hair curl that should be higher relief than the neck disappearing into it despite lack of wear. Stuff like that.

I'm not an expert in any US series, but looking at the things I mentioned above, which are also consistent across various foreign coin types I am very familiar with, allows me to spot them without knowing specific types and varieties.

In the case of this coin it's much easier to scrutinize due to the source from which it comes. In a different context I may have passed over it and not looked very closely.

 

The more and more I look at it, the more I think C-3 and C-4 have the same reverse die, especially since both appear to have the same die chip by the second "A" in "America." The zeros in 1/200 looked a little different to me initially probably due to picture quality. With that in mind, I think it's based off of C-4.

Regardless, it's still a very good counterfeit.

 

Very good points, Numismat. The seller with 0 feedback and nothing else for sale is the biggest red flag for me.

 

The other coins in their completed items are typical fakes that appear on ebay by the dozens each year, all virtually identical in appearance. That's how these accounts get on my radar, I search for specific types that are currently being sold by this distributor and go from there.

 

Very interesting. Is this an electrotype of some sort?

 

Nope, fresh from the press followed by the oven. http://coins.about.com/od/worldcoin...iting-Ring/Fake-Indian-Head---Large-Cents.htm

Here is the main article, from around the time these started appearing en masse on ebay: http://coins.about.com/od/worldcoins/ig/Chinese-Counterfeiting-Ring/