Genuine or Fake? 1837 Capped Bust Half

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I just bought his book. He goes into great detail about how to spot these coins....apparently it was common to counterfeit 50 cent pieces back then.

 

What bothers me about this one is that for a coin in such a high grade the dentils and letters look so mushy. The surfaces also look porous from here. The surfaces also seem to have a frosty look to them that I have seen on a lot of chinese fakes in other series. I would also expect to see some metal flow lines on such a high grade specimen. These are just general observations, I don't think I could say for sure without the item in hand.

 

Very interesting...too much for counterfeits.

 

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Originally Posted by Just Carl
All books on coins are OK but I'd rather spend the money on coins. You can resell coins if you wanted to but used books are not a great investment commodity.



Is he even in this thread?

 

Thanks for the additional information.

 

One more point about forgeries of early coin series: they will show characteristics of the original coin because they are transfer die forgeries of an original. Die cracks, weakly struck devices, etc, will be present on the fake. I find it more helpful to look for general forgery characteristics in forming an opinion about a coin's authenticity. In this case I have an opinion that the chances of it being fake are at least 50/50, but that's all it is, an opinion.

 

It compares nicely with a genuine one, even the strong eagle relative to the weak edge details on the reverse. The vertical lines in the shield apparently extending into the border are a bit worrisome if they actually do. A better picture of that area would help.