Hey gang! I wanted to post this coin that came into the shop. It's a no questions added mintmark counterfeit. The shape of the mintmark is totally incorrect for the series. On genuine examples the inside of the mintmark is almost triangular as seen below on a genuine piece. The original piece looks to have been modified a while ago. I thought these pictures might be useful.
Here's another that came into my hands from an estate. Shape of MM isn't bad but it's tilted improperly. Pretty good fake. Lance.
Both pretty good fakes! I'm sure they cost some people a lot of money. Lance - That PCGS 14D is the BOMB! NICE!
Is it possible that something could have smashed the MM on this one? If I recall the D on these usually looks thin on the 1914, and if something was to have come down on it, could it have made it look like that? Just a thought. Chuck
I can see Matt's is added, but that one Lance posted would have got me and still does. I have never seen it, but there must be a set of pictures of the dies used like we have for the 09-S VDB. Has anyone seen such?
Good thinking, Chuck. I considered that too. But I didn't like the angle of the MM. It should be fairly upright. Ultimately I sent it to PCGS, figuring if it were real it would need a legitimate holder. No luck. I have another coin from this estate, a 1909-S VDB, with a great story for another time. I shouldn't hijack this thread. Lance.
There were six die pairs for the '14-D. I don't know of a site that illustrates them. There's probably one out there somewhere. Here's an older thread about counterfeit '14-D's. If you want to read more about this particular one here's the link for the thread on the PCGS forum. Lance.
Those are good fakes, I had to look at them a couple times. This is why I rely on TPG, PCGS and NGC. But in these days, even the slabs and serial numbers are getting faked, you you're not 100% safe buying slabbed pieces. Still studying on how to spot fake 14-D's and 09-S VDB's, that way if I go to buy one, I'll know what to watch out for.
I've never seen one, but it would be a useful tool. I would think it might be possible to create one from the Heritage site, and I'm sure they would be happy to give permission for their images to be used.