I recently picked up a few examples of these for a talk I'm giving to the Indianapolis Coin Club on the Chinese counterfiet problem. I got a couple shots of this one before my camera died. This piece weighs 10.8 grams which is very close to the originals. As it sits this piece is pretty easily identifiable as a fake but with some artificial wear and tear this could be turned into a very dangerous piece for the uninformed collector. Notice the recutting in "LIBERTY".
Sad but true. Most of the counterfeit early American copper I have seen is pretty sorry, but this one is, as you say, dangerous. Keep up the good work, LD !
very intersting coin! Just where do you pick these up? Do you buy them as fakes, or pluck them from the sales ranks knowing they are fake?
This one was purchased intentionally as a fake for the purpose of teaching others and for documenting the piece as bad.
It's a good looking fake. A little creative art work and many would not be able to tell. It's too bad the hobby has to go through this but it's certainly nothing new.
i wish i could have one for my ring. and i don't have to worry about it. but the price should be only $1.00 each.
Dangerous indeed Dutchman! This one looks pretty real at arms length. Does it match any of the Newcomb varities for the year?
Right now you can buy complete date sets of coronet cents on eBay for prices ranging from about $2.50-$3.50 a coin.
If the coin were to be real, I still wouldn't buy it, personally I think, the color is a little odd looking. Nice shots on this coin LD, really shows how good is looks, until you see the crudeness on LIBERTY
In hand the color is really good... A bit splotchy on the reverse... but the obverse is spot on color wise... wonder how they do it?
The Chinese are very clever... Just looking at some of the dies and the machines they use to make it, looks very unprofessional, and "poor-like", and yet, they can make these coins with such clarity and symmetry all the way around.
Many legitimate Newcomb varieties have odd spacing and repunched letters in LIBERTY. Without consulting an attribution book, that LIBERTY would not have been enough for me to condemn this one as counterfeit. My suspicions were aroused by the denticles at K6 Obverse, just beneath the "1". Notice how there is a distinct difference in the height of adjacent denticles ? Also... denticles at K6:30 reverse, just beneath the ribbon, just left of bottom dead center... notice a little "gap between the teeth" ? For some reason, there are two things counterfeiters have real problems with : denticles and reeding. This coin, of course, has a plain edge, so no reeds.
coming soon: chinese version of 2009w american buffalo one ounce gold proof. price - $14.95. be ready. it might be sell out immediately. krispy is ready for that.
Don't know if this would be normal or not, but I circled some areas that I thought could be problem areas, in addition to what you've already stated. Notice there are gaps, and some of them look like a roller coaster ride, up and down, all uneven. If the photos provided were in an auction, I would definitely stay away from this coin.
No it doesn't and as soon as you start trying to attribute it you start to realize that nothing is matching up Still I think this coin would fool most non-specialist collectors AND dealers
Quite likely. I don't have an encyclopedic memory for die varieties, and rarely attribute coins at shows. The fact that it doesn't attribute wouldn't have helped me at the show. Hopefully, I would have noticed the denticle problems and passed. Yes, it's a scary one.
The other thing that would have helped me is the mushiness in the hair above the coronet and the bun. It should be sharper on a coin with this much detail. It's not the look one gets with weak strike, but rather mushy detail in the counterfeiter's die.