A friend believes this one is NG and has offered to send it to me for an in-hand review but I would like some opinions from the Group here!
Jack... I am a rabid hobbyist and not an expert. Personally when I look at a trade dollar, I look at Lady Liberty's hands and feet. It seems to me the counterfeiters of the world get lazy on hand and foot details. And looking at Lady Liberty's foot, this one immediately registers as fake to my eyes..... And again, I am not the expert and look forward to what the educated folks have to say.
Certainly not an expert here but the missing lower left serif of the second L in DOLLAR is a die maker of a known reverse die. If this is a counterfeit it's a good one. edit to add - https://www.greatcollections.com/Coin/19004 edit to also add - example of the above reverse die paired with an obverse die with date placement of the OP example. - https://www.greatcollections.com/Coin/990677 According to the information in the SSDC registry there were 2 obverse dies paired with this reverse die.
Compare to the 75S in the TD Thread below this thread. Jack, Apologize in advance for responding to your thread, in accordance to your previous request, but this was a little to obvious as a possible comparison to not mention it. I will not give my opinion, again per previous request.
I thought the same thing. But then I looked at several photos of graded Trade dollars, and thought the same thing about those toes, too.
This bugged me. You guys are right. The examples I looked at on the web displayed similar characteristics….. So it drove me nuts and I had to come home and make an attempt at some close up shots of my slabbed AU53. I thought that would be a fairer representation since mine has similar wear to Jacks photo. The foot in Jacks photo simply appears to be crude lines scratched where the toes should be. On mine there is depth to the structure of the foot. It is far more three dimensional and shows depth to the features. The hand on my example has four distinct fingers holding the branch. Try as I might, I can only make out three fingers on Jacks example. And again, the fingers appear far more crude than the fingers on my slabbed piece. Again, I preface this by emphasizing that I am a rabid hobbyist and NOT an expert at counterfeit detection. I thank the heavens that we have Jack on this forum to help keep us straight….. But I do think that I’ll stand by my previous comment. I think Jacks is counterfeit based upon the crude hand and foot details.
A coin grading company should give you the true facts on your trade dollar. I'm no expert. Thanks for showing it to all of us.
Amen to you all. Like most collectors, we aren't experts, but we do have so knowledge that could get us a hint that before buying a coin that is expensive and the source is not known, I would hold off on making a major purchase. I hope that you will take care before a purchase like this one. And again, it could be a real coin...
Comments so far were "The dentils have the spark erosion texture. The fields look weird, and there are several tiny raised bumps near the letters on the reverse". And "the pitting, the "e pluribus unum" and the eagles head"...
The links I posted to GC auctions appear to have the same rust pitting in the denticles so if the PCGS and NGC graded examples match this example we're looking at a rusted die or multiple examples from a spark erosion die.
Do you have a closeup of some edge reeding? What I don't like so far is the odd texture overall, sort of "micro-pebbly," especially on the rev dentils, and a lump on the 2nd L in DOLLAR. I'm suspicious.
Nice research, also I see the lump on the L. The surface texture is very similar and not something I was familiar with , so now I am somewhat less suspicious of the op coin, but would still like to see an edge close up.
Gosh, I'm stumped. It really gives me the feeling of a fake, but then there's this MS67 on Heritage. Save off the reverse image on this and the subject coin, zoom way in and compare the letters, particularly in TRADE DOLLAR. Examine all the lumps. Even some patterns in the smallest raised dots are identical. Seems like it's either legit or an amazing clone of this die. https://coins.ha.com/itm/trade-doll.../1291-4530.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515
Coin looks authentic to me.It is A known reverse . Plus weight looks perfect and past the Sigma tester.
The number of fingers is correct for a Type 1 obverse, which this is. The fourth finger came along withe the Type 2 obverse in 1876. The coin looks authentic to me. I do see what looks like filed rims, but that may be the photo angle and lighting.