Using my cheap $10 kitchen scale that may or may not be very accurate, the weight is 1.5 grams off. I'm obviously not a professional, but from what I can see, there's quite a bit off with my coin when comparing to pics I'm seeing of real ones. Just curious as to what you guys think before I even pay to have it graded (or just immediately told its fake). Aside from all the small things that look off, the first thing that jumped out to me was the angle of the stars around the edge look off.
Well I know little about these, but Liberty's head is all wrong and the lines in the shield are wrong.....and more.
Just curious, since I'm by no means a Gobrecht expert, what are the clues that it's fake beyond the weight and the stars? Assuming all the obverse dies are consistent in the orientation of the stars, and we can't tell the die alignment from the pics (all 1839's should be IV), are there any other markers visible in the pictures? Nevermind -- the post above this one popped in while I was still typing.
Apparently there's a lot of "dead give aways". Lol I didn't pay anything for it. It was gifted to me by someone who admittedly didn't know if it was real or fake. Her grandmother was a coin collector and when she passed away, left her with hundreds of old coins. She has only had a hand full graded, and her luck so far has been about 50% counterfeit, 50% real lol.
I just always look at the shield first, counterfeiters never seem to get it right. And 50%, ouch, I hope someone wasn't taking advantage of her.
While certainly glad you didn't lose anything, it is most regrettable to learn of the number of fakes your friend has. Unfortunately, this kind of thing is actually quite common, and is a big reason why this hobby has such a bad reputation outside of those involved; too many get screwed. One can only hope the ease with which collectors can communicate today will help to change this, but evidence suggests otherwise.
The eagles mouth is open too much. (This is a restrike) The stars are all wrong on the obverse. The denticles are too large on the reverse and the lettering looks too large on the reverse. As mentioned that large gap on the left side of the shield on the obverse.
