possible counterfeit Morgan?

Hard to tell from the scans but I think it's authentic. The surface of the coin looks off though, and my guess would be it's been harshly cleaned.

 

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I like this explanation. Also, whenever you see a raw (not in a slab) Morgan that is this clean/perfect with no luster it should send up red flags. The cheek and the fields are so clean on this that a real one with luster would probably grade 65 or 66 and someone would have submitted it by now. Besides that, the straight lines on the obverse and the raised bubble behind the head is like nothing I've seen on one of these. This is garbage.

It's hard to believe people bid on this crap.

I've seen way better fakes than this. With so many land mines out there, you'd be crazy not to buy only slabbed Morgans now. It's getting to that point if it hasn't gotten there already. Then you better be able to identify a fake slab as well.

 

I'm guessing that it isn't a fake but it might be cleaned. The pic looks ok to me and the seller has a pretty good rating with over 600 transactions.

 

Morgans are going pretty cheap right now. I don't know why you would risk buying a fake on ebay, when you can buy from a local reputable dealer with a reputation to stand by for the same price. The Chinese are making descent fakes of even common dated silver dollars these days, and ebay is helping them bring this garbage to the states. As for the seller's ratings, Most ebayers don't get their coins authenticated. As long as the transaction went well and they recieved the coin within a week, they'll give good feedback every time.

 

Yeah, the feedback is only worth so much. All it says is that the seller shipped an item and the buyer received it. Whether it was actually real or even what the buyer thought they were getting grade-wise, you never know. Many novice collectors have low or no standards yet when it comes to quality so a lot of sellers are getting great feedback over junk.

Sometimes people are disappointed and leave positive feedback anyway.

 

The coin looks like its been ionized, with a photo taken in Natural light. Here is a similar 1888 Morgan that was treated as I stated above. Compare with the 1879, they look very much alike. What do you kidzzzz think? However the only way to be sure is to check the weight,dimensions, run a magnet over it, check details and finally a
brinell hardness test. :whistle: Traci

 

Were those pics in the description at the bottom of the listing there this am or yesterday? I don't recall them and if you look the top one has a crack or seperation under the date and the coin in the flip does not. I don't really know, but something just does not seem right.

 

The bottom coin is the exact coin that started this thread. I though I would bring it up, for ease of comparison. Traci

 

My point was I looked at this listing last night and the photos in the description were not there if I recall correctly. Now they are and they do not look like the same coin. They might be, it is just looking a bit shady. I do not know what is up, but it just looks fishy or odd to me.

 

Oh.... now I understand Peace... I did not get to this thread until tonight. I do find it interesting though. Traci

 

What did you mean by kiddzz? It is not settling very well with me.
Do you own a hardness tester?

 

I really don't think Ripley meant anything by it , it's just an expression sorta like when I say guy .
rzage