1853 Gold Dollar for grading

On the overall type perhaps, but if you compare to known genuine examples of the same date/mint, I do believe you'll find the lack of detail ("mushiness" if you will) is beyond the norm.

 

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One of the key red flags that I always look for is the dentilation. The dentils are messed up more often than not on counterfeit coins. Compare this counterfeit with a genuine example, like the one seen here, and you will immediately see a significant difference: https://coins.ha.com/itm/gold-dolla...1641-23575.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

 

IMHO the coin IS NOT CAST! This is similar to the type of mushy, off-color counterfeits that were made in Lebanon in the 60's and early 70's. At the time several counterfeit "authorities" were calling/teaching that these were cast copies. Actually they were the "first" decent struck copies.

 

Absolutely not.

IMO, in the case of gold dollars the strength, clarity, and shape of the denticals sorry: that's what we called them in the 60's) are not very reliable characteristics to use for authentication. They can be strong, very weak, and even non-existent on genuine pieces. However, you should check them for the commonly seen tool marks on older counterfeit dies; some of which may still be in use today.

PS I forgot to mention when you see a gold coin with full blazing original luster on its surface yet the details of an XF/AU (look at center of obverse) it is a better indication of a fake than the denticals.

 

Thanks. One more question. Are there any known contemporary counterfeits of this gold dollar type?

 

Of course and I see where this is going .

 

I'm only asking for the fun of understand something in my past.
25 years ago, a great friend and local dealer had an 1856. He called it a pattern and I called it a modern fake. We sent it to PCI just for the fun of it. It came back as contemporary counterfeit with a red label. We both said PCI was wrong. We had a lot of fun talking about the coin. This thread just makes me wonder if PCI was correct. Fun stuff.

 

If it was made of the correct value in gold, then what advantage did it give the counterfeiter way back when? Maybe the face value was slightly higher than the intrinsic value?

 

Only ones I have ever seen are copper alloy that has been gold colored (washed or plated?). Each had various amounts of gold worn off. Many of these had crude designs. IMO, copies as nice as this (and it really is not ) and made with some alloy of gold, were not around in the 1850's.

My money is with PCI. You and PCI agreed the coin was counterfeit. Putting "contemporary" on the holder probably indicated the coin was a 19th Century fake in their opinion.

 

Contemporary counterfeits were not made of gold for that very reason. But the Middle East fakes made in the late 50's early 60s were made of the correct alloy, sometimes even a little better. Gold bullion was price controled at that time at $35 an oz, and Americans couldn't own gold. But they COULD own pre 1933 gold coins and at the time they typically traded at around three times gold value for common dates. The counterfeiters could buy gold at $35, make it into US gold coins and sell them to tourists at $70 an oz. The tourists either thought they were buying cheaper than they could at home, or saw it as a way of hoarding gold at a cheaper price than they could legally buy it at home. And being "US coins" there was no hassle bringing them home. Under weight or low fineness fakes were more likely to be spotted and since they were already making a really good profit at full weightwhy risk detection from improper alloy?

 

While I don't agree with some of the specifics in the rest of your post, your observation above is incorrect and verified by tests of these pieces at the Mint Lab in Washington in the early 1970's. Modern authenticators or anyone interested can do the same test on coins like the off color one in the OP.

It was not until the mid to late 1970's that the counterfeiters realized that their fakes could be detected at a distance due to the unusual color of the LOW GRADE gold alloy they were using. That's when the composition of the fakes (and their color) improved. Stories are told in seminars about authenticators examining sets of $2 1/2 Indians in Capitol Plastic holders and all the coins were the same color except the 11-D counterfeits with the wrong composition.

I have seen some $2 1/2 and $5 Indians struck with the older dies yet composed of a decent colored alloy. No telling when these were made.