Authentic VS. Counterfeit 1809 DIME

Ok, so I will not claim to be a capped Bust Dime expert, I know nothing about the series. But upon receiving this counterfeit in the mail, I have studied it and compared it to pictures of real ones on Heritage and this is what I have come up with:
3.75 grams

OBVERSE

• The stars around teh outside of the coin are too fat and mushy. As opposed to skinny, and pointy tips.
• The Denticles are much different than you would expect to see on an authentic version. They are long and narrow, as opposed to short and fat.
• You will notice the details on the bust, and face are all wrong. There are several missing curls in the hair, and all the detail in "Liberty" is missing.

REVERSE

• The very first thing I noticed was the eagles mouth isn't even open!
• The "E PLURIBUS UNUM" is raised off the coin, as opposed to incuse like on the authentic version.
• There is a huge lack in detail on the eagle, and way too many bars on the shield.
• The arrows are way too small, and don't come nearly close enough to the rim.
• And.. I'm pretty sure they used a completley different font on the "United States Of America".

COUNTERFEIT



AUTHENTIC

 

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Not to mention the detail wear on the obverse isn't matched with the perfectly intact denticles and rims, or the seemingly detailed reverse. And is that the actual color? It looks like the replica is in bronze or something. Goofy counterfeiters!
Guy~

 

That is a terrible counterfeit.
First off, coin with perfect detail on reverse, and full rim, and then a crappy obverse, a little suspicious. Then look at the obverse, not even close to what it should be! It looks more like the later bust half design, the neck and face are longer than they should be. And compare the eagles, counterfeit and real, they look nothing alike, and what is up with the color as well?
Like I said, this is one terrible counterfeit, and sad thing is, somebody would probably be fooled, and buy it.

 

Well, this counterfeit bust dime given to me a few years ago isn't much better... one star is missing a point..

 

And the reverse...

 

I agree- that is a terrible counterfeit of the scarce (R-4+) 1809 dime. You have outlined most/all of the points of divergence vs. the original. One look at it was enough. The style of the bust is completely off.

I am not at all surprised this date is targeted for fakes, with all of the hype and demand it has seen recently. I don't think it will be long before far more sophisticated and dangerous fakes show up.

 

This counterfeit wasn't by chance bought on ebay was it? I don't know why that keeps going through my head...

 

This just goes to show that when there's a die flaw, and you run a high tech counterfeiting facility, you can't let a little thing like that stop production!!!:smile

 

Are you sure it's a counterfeit?

 

the "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" looks like 1 word...

 

Yep... 100% phoney. Not as bad as the OP, but still not that good. In fact, there's one similar right now on eBay, complete with missing point and closed in lettering on the reverse. There's also a few identical to the OP's counterfeit. All are being sold as reproductions, but probably don't have the "copy" stamp as required.

 

I see what you are saying. I knew of the STATESOFAMERICA variety and figured that's what it was. It sure fooled me. You must be correct. I looked at close to 75 images on Heritage and can't find one with that spacing. Figured the star was just a filled die and the centering dot made me think it was real. Thanks for the education. I would have bought it thinking it was just a variety.

 

Ldhair, for comparison here is an 1814 dime with 'StatesofAmerica' as one word.
It is the 1814 JR-5 variety. Note how the spacing of the letters and words in the legend differs from the example posted by Jloring. Here again, there are differences not only in the spacing of the letters in the legend, but also in the overall style of the bust.
But, I agree, at arms length it is not that bad, certainly better than the 1809 posted by the O.P.

 

Not to mention, the shield is different on the reverse of the dime.

 

These are great threads... the counterfeit education series. Nice work. :thumb:

 

• 
  
  One other notion - check out the eagle's wings. On the counterfeit, there is a well-defined line along the top (leading edge of the wing when flying) which seperates the edge of the wing from the feathers. That doesn't exist on genuine examples.
  
  This counterfeit was probably struck from hand-carved dies, not transfer dies. It's neither a cast counterfeit nor an electrotype.

 

Certainly a better counterfeit then the one I posted! There is another 1809 in the mail. The picture looked a little different so I'm hoping it is a completely different attempt at making the 1809.

It was.

I agree, I hope to make a few more as the coins roll in...

 

I'm gonna throw out an idea...

Maybe post photos and ask the $64,000 question "Counterfeit or Legit ?". Have folks post rationale for their reasoning.

 

Now, I contemplated that with this one. but I have already started a thread on a counterfeit 09 S VDB, with that style. I don't want to get on anyones nerves, and I want tehse to be easy to find for a new collector trying to educate themselves on counterfeits.
BTW:
If anyone ever wants high res pictures of these counterfeits, or others email me and I will send some your way.

 

or the "what coin hasnt been counterfeited yet" hahaha but yes alot to learn from threads like these since ive been out of practice.