Hey Is this authentic? This is not my coin, but someone wanted me to find out if it was real or not. If it is real, what would it be worth? Thanks
No, it's a replica, complete with fake chop marks. Here is what a real one looks like, though from a different mint. Compare them and it is easy to see the difference.
With all respect to the expertise of GDJMSP, it's not clear to me how this coin can be so quickly dismissed as a replica from a photograph and a chopmark. How can one tell if a chopmark is faked since a chopmark can literally be anything, any shape, anywhere on the coin? And why would a replica or modern fake maker go so far as to include a chopmark (actually looks like three marks), which to many collectors would devalue the coin? If the coin is actually an old counterfeit, the chopmark could be real -- or it could have been faked at the time the coin was made and circulated in the Far East to make it appear more genuine.
The chopmark has nothing to do with my opinion. I merely mentioned it because I figured somebody would say - what about the chopmark, doesn't that prove it's real ? But I dismiss this coin as a replica based purely upon the design. Look at it closely in comparison to genuine coins and the difference is glaring, to me at least. Perhaps the easiest to see is the open mouth. On genuine coins it isn't. There are those who claim they can tell genuine chopmarks from fake ones - I'm not one of them. But those who make these fake coins put the chopmarks on them in order to bolster the coin's supposed authenticity. Yes, there are those who think of the chopmarks as damage - as do I. But there are also plenty of others who strive to collect only chopmarked coins. So fake ones would appeal to those people. That's why they would do it. Now, if the OP wishes to provide us with an accurate weight for this coin, I feel confident that will back up my opinion that the coin is fake.
