A co-worker has brought in her late-husband's coin collection for me to "evaluate". The very first coin I saw was a 1799 CC Trade Dollar! (not a good sign of things to come). A quick search and I found this site re. counterfeit and fantasy pieces... http://www.theblackcabinet.org Just thought I'd share. Here's the info on the 1799 CC Trade... http://www.theblackcabinet.org/counterfeit/cf-t1-1799cc-0001/ How many of you have a "Black Cabinet"? And yes, those who have Dan Carr pieces need to fess up! lol
I hate a deal like that. Now you are in the difficult position of telling a widow who is already broken hearted additional bad news. I hate that for you....... As far as me? Closest thing I have to a counterfeit piece is the three faux Morgan dollars my son gave me for Fathers Day fifteen years ago. The boy swept floors at a giant flea market an entire weekend to get that set for me. I never told him they were phony as a three dollar bill.
The two counterfeit coins that drew my attention in the database were the Sacagawea Dollar and the Silver American Eagle. Interesting! Chris
There's a difficult task ahead of you but perhaps her late husband was a collector of fantasy pieces.
I have a small group of about 15 to 20 pieces that a fellow club member gave to use for educational purposes. It includes a 1908 American Silver Eagle (!), a fake Pillar Dollar, a Henning nickel, a few old cast copies of Wilking Liberty Half Dollars and a 1944-D cent that has been turned into a 1914-D bogus cent. Beyond that I have been collecting a "virtual collection" of counterfeits, mostly from eBay over the years. There are a few hundred pieces in that.
We're good friends so I told her straight out. She was fine with that, not too surprised, etc. but she did request that I don't tell her how much he probably paid for it!!! Knowing that wouldn't do anyone any good. LOL
I remember that I was maning a club table at show for a while. We were offering free opinions on coins that people had. One woman had one of those 1944-D cents that had been turned into a 1914-D. She had bought it for her late husband as gift. It left me wondering what to say.
Fantastic website. The only issue that I have with it is that if I were in the counterfeiting business, that website would be my best friend.
Found another fantasy piece in my friends collection. http://www.theblackcabinet.org/counterfeit/cf-s1-1851-0001/ Population is listed as 8! Seems like a rather low production run for a Chinese fantasy piece - lol.
Until we can convince more people to submit these to TPGs, the census numbers will remain artificially low.
a co-worker came to me a few years back saying he "bought a few silver dollars" and the more I bought the cheaper he'd sell them to me. Alarm bells went off in my head (are they stolen? Are they fake? what's the catch?) Show them to me then we'll talk. When he dropped them onto the hardwood table, they sounded like metal washers thudding on the table. 1799 was one date and it could have passed AU (way too good to me true). "How much are they worth?' he asked. My reply was "About five years a piece for trying to pawn off counterfeit coins" he left fast with the "coins"
My “ugly face” Trade dollar . My dad brought as a gift from a friend who came back from Vietnam we paid red book (I was like 10 and it was super cool to get a Trade Dollar )
What are the most commonly counterfeited coins that you know of today? Question to anyone. I've heard that Morgan silver dollars are popular with counterfeiters which scared me off a bit.
Morgans are definitely popular. I also see a lot of "they're not even trying to be convincing" fakes on eBay -- bust dollars, Trade dollars, "Indian Head" dollars that don't resemble any real coin ever minted, "1906" American Silver Eagles, that sort of stuff. I've heard it said that there are more US Mercury Dime collections containing a 1916-D than the total mintage of the coin. Key dates have always been popular for fakes, especially in the most popular series -- Lincoln cents, Buffalo nickels, Mercury dimes, Washington quarters. And, again, Morgans.
It can be difficult to tell a friend that they have a fake. If you tell them, they may be upset … perhaps at the messenger. If you don’t tell them, they may be embarrassed or worse if they try to sell it as genuine. One minor hobby of mine, one I have pretty much given up, is gemology. Friends of mine, a young couple, spent some time in South America working. When they returned, they announced their engagement. Knowing I was interested in gemology, they showed me the engagement ring, and the man proudly announced it was a rare blue diamond. I could tell at a glance that it had been irradiated to develop the blue color. He asked only that I verify that the diamond was genuine, which I did. I didn't tell them the color had been developed artificially, and fortunately, they didn't ask. They are still married 10 years later and have two beautiful children. And I’m glad I never mentioned the artificial diamond color. Cal
The Sacagawea fakes are conjectured to have been made in Colombia - but sold to Ecuadorians who spend them in Ecuador as they actually do circulate there. There are many well known black cabinet items, Henning nickels, Micro-O Morgans etc. I collect them, especially the Micro-O's that were certified by NGC and PCGS before it was determined they were forgeries - and were approximately 92-93% silver vs the 90% of the US minted coins.
