Fake? Or Tampered with? You decide.

Similar to chop marks common on Trade dollars.
Very clean coin, but no reason to think a semi-key in low grade is fake..

 

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It is interesting that a Ed Murphy asked a question about the mark and expressed his idea that chopmarks are known on walking liberty halves, and he wanted to know if a full refund was possible if it was a fake mark, and the answer was yes. Mr. Murphy wrote an article on chopmark tools for the chopmarks.org journal.

Not saying he is an expert, but there seems to be some who have done other research that might be of interest.

Jim

 

imo, the coin is genuine and the chop is bad.

 

I think the coin is real, and the "chop mark" is really graffiti. Two reasons for the second observation. First, chop marks are rarely/never found on coins this modern (they went out around the turn of the century, IIRC), and second a chopmark deforms the reverse of the coin and the coin doesn't appear to be deformed on the reverse.

 

Reading the thread now.... Darn you GDJMSP.

 

I'm curious as to what this mark represents, like what kind of symbol it is? Is it a Chinese character?

 

Sometimes the person placing the mark doesn't know the coin is scarce and valuable, and sometimes the mark is place on the coin contemporaneously when the coin is not considered to be scarce or valuable but just another coin. Of course in that case you should tend to see wear around the edges of the mark consistent with the wear displayed by the rest of the coin.

 

altered surfaces with graffiti

Hello BNB,

Some people collect chop marked coins but IMO this is just graffiti on a coin that has altered surfaces. There is wear on the coin but not on the chop. The chop just doesn't look good and the coin looks worse. I would recommend against buying it.

There is too much wear and tooling on the surface to determine if the coin is fake in the photo. IMO it is just no-grade body bag material.

(If real, the date would have been worth something without the altered surface & modern graffiti).

Very best regards,
collect89

 

My mistake, I didn’t see that there were already three pages of replies.

 

I hope you don't assume or think I'm actually buying this p.o.s.
It's just for examples sake.

 

Thanks! I am in the same boat. I have no reference material on chop marks, didn't even know there were organizations or newsletters on them, nor who Ed Murphy was in relation to coins Hopefully it wasn't just someone using his name. Maybe he will join the forum.

Jim

 

Thoughts on this coin?

http://cgi.ebay.com/1921-D-Walking-...Individual?hash=item439a9e2385#ht_3156wt_1165

I called them and they guaranteed that I can go certify it and if it comes back ungraded I could get my money back.

Man I want a 1921-d so bad!

 

From the photo, it looks like a problem free example. It's a fine looking coin.

 

I have several WLH`s and it is one of my favorite style coins . The ones I have are mostly low grade and very worn . I have one that might grade AU-58 and none have the sharp edge on the flag underneath the outstreched arm . It appears to me the surface has been tooled. I`m not an expert by any means but i`m old enough to have spent many of these in my younger days and don`t recall any coin wearing that way .

 

The surface has been what?

And are you talking about the link I just posted?

Be more specific, I'd like to understand you.

 

Sorry the coin I was referring to was the one with the chop mark , not the second coin posted !

 

BNB , the second walker looks fine to me , does he have a return policy , just in case it looks different in hand .
rzage