1914 Barber Half - good buy?

Its really not a bad counterfeit as far as they go. I definitely wouldn't have spotted it, although I also wouldn't have bid on it. Raw keys on Ebay is a loser's gamble, and I would rather have a low grade original than a higher graded cleaned coin any day of the week.

 

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Here are some additional pics of the alleged fake. I'm not an expert on coins, but this looks pretty obvious to me. Thank you all who have advised me on this thread - I would not have figured this out without your help.

The photos in order are:
A closeup of a PCGS graded XF45 1914
A photo from EBAY of the coin I bought
A photo of the PCGS XF45 coin
A closeup of the date of the coin I bought

 

I'd knock off another 10% on top of that.

 

How many percent do you knock off for COUNTERFEIT? 99%?

 

Its not a bad counterfeit at all, the Chinese are getting better and better everyday. Usually if the eBay auction reads something like "This coin is rare and scare" there's a good chance you are not getting the real thing.

Live and learn. And try not to be disgusting.....:goofer::hammer:

 

i know ive watched some of that sellers items before. makes me wonder if he suspected or if he could have others?

 

Might as well--it is a fake POS.

 

That explains a lot.

 

Take a look at his Barbers up for sale... they all look identical.. This guy is selling alot of raw coins, many of them suspect in my opinion.

 

good attitude.


'Frankly I'm disgusted' that you posted that dribble.


it is a shame, since you'll probably never post again, and you do seem to be fairly 'godlike' in your opinions, and sense of personal perfection.

no loss.

 

Objective,

Good catch...kind of....

It's an altered date, not counterfeit. But thanks for registering to demean the rest of us while making a mistake yourself.

Take care....Mike

 

What's the difference between altered date and counterfeit? Is it simply that the coin is real, but the date has been messed with?

 

A counterfeit is struck/cast as a fake. An altered date is a real coin, but the date's been altered.

 

what makes you say its altered and not counterfeit?

 

Since the "9" has definitely been altered, this has to be an 189X coin. Therefore, at least one other number has been altered. I suppose it is possible, but I find it hard to believe that they would pick a coin where they had to alter 2 (or 3?) numbers as apposed to just a single digit.

 

you got part of the head missing. the ribbons dont compare at all. too many problems without a date to compare it to to make me think its altered.

 

Looks like I may be wrong -- certainly wouldn't be the first time. I'll step back now and let you guys figure out if it is counterfeit or altered. Thanks for keeping me honest here, and I apologize for my strongly worded response to Objective...Mike

 

Off topic: I really appreciate this kind of honesty and when I see it, it lends much more credibilty to that person's past & future comments. Thanks.

 

Thank you, sir.

 

Here's another coin sold by the same seller on EBAY which looks to be another altered Key Date Barber. Look at the 9 and the 2 in the date:

http://www.auctiva.com/hostedimages...ages=305847213,305847256&formats=0,0&format=0

Compare it to the date on this PCGS coin from a completed Heritage auction:

http://coins.ha.com/common/view_ima...'global.source.error')]&sink=preservemd[true]

Seems like there's a pattern. I looked through a bunch of this seller's completed listings and it looks like he sells about 300 coins a month on EBAY. Mostly coins in the $20-100 range, but a few Key dates in the $500-800 range. The above 1892-O Barber Half sold for $400:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350257388083

So maybe the scam is to sell a bunch of cheaper coins that are legit in order to gain a 99.6% approval rating, and then throw in a few bigger ticket altered coins in order to make a bigger score? I guess it's possible that the seller isn't aware that some of the coins that he's selling may be fake, so there is a chance that he's an honest seller who himself has been taken advantage of.

FWIW, I sent a couple of e-mails to the seller of my fake 1914 last night, and still haven't gotten any type of response (18 hours later). So I suspect the seller is dodging me.