Coming back to the hobby after being inactive for 5 years and one of the first things I've noticed are the increased number of counterfeit coins. Way back when, I wouldn't have worried so much about buying a seated dollar or trade dollar, but now I don't think I'll be getting any raw ones. So my question is regarding Barber halves. Are there any known counterfeit problems in that series I should watch for? I'm working on a Good to Fine series.
You don't see much with this series. I have seen lead coins in the barber halfs but they are easy to detect.
With the recent popularity of them, keep your eye out for modern counterfeits. Counterfeiting technology has advanced to the point where they can replicate the ring of silver without having silver in them and can even copy the metal flow lines of the mint lustre. As I stated above, stay away from China as well as other Eastern and Middle-Eastern dealers because 9/10 times or more they are selling counterfeits. The modern trade dollar copies are very hard to detect unless you have them in hand. Even then, they can be very hard to detect.
Thanks for the replys. I remember in my earlier days it was gold coins that were commonly counterfeited and thinking I wouldn't buy one unless it was certified by one of the top graders. So now I can add seated/trade dollars to that list. I saw some of those Asian fakes on ebay as listed on various threads here. That was very educational.
David - Counterfeits were just as prolific 10 - 25 - 50 yrs ago as they are today. There are a great many collectors out there who have had coins in their collections, some of them held for generations, that are counterfeit or altered and they don't even know it. And the counterfeits were not limited to the gold coins. As a matter of fact there are far more counterfeit silver coins than there are gold. Even copper counterfeits exist in very large numbers. Too often collectors lull themselves into a false sense of security think that because a coin is of a low denomination that nobody would bother to counterfeit it. Nothing could be further from the truth. So please, don't make that mistake.
The Barber half series is relatively free from countefiet/alterations, especially when compared to other series.
