I picked this up yesterday, knowing full well that it was a counterfeit, but thinking that maybe it might be a contemporary counterfeit and not a new Chinese one. The coin weighs in at 12.86g and is 30mm. The general look without a loop was good, so I looped it and i noticed what appeared to be casting bubbles in and around the date, some around the bust. So I thought, ok, maybe there is a rust pitted die I don't know about or something. SO I dropped it on the counter, where it utterly failed the ring test. It just went clunk, very dull sounding, so I knew then it was a counterfeit. It was good enough however to have fooled me for a few minutes. SO, I thought maybe it was cast from a real coin. The wear seems uneven, as if it were actually passed around opposed to some of the artificial wear you see simulated on some fakes. I started comparing it to the book, but have been having a hard time attributing its parent coin. The best I could come up with was that it might have been an O-142, maybe an O-143. Any thought on this guys. I've posted a couple different exposures for y'all.
Kind of looks like someone else may have been thinking the same thing you are for that looks like a test cut in front of the eagle's beak. What can you see down inside that cut ? Can you see two different metals ? If you can that would certainly explain why it fails the ring test. Of course the ring test alone is probably enough to confirm the coin is a fake.
I doubt it's a copy of a real one. Too much looks wrong, like the lettering. It's not a 143, in any case. The letters in the scroll don't line up properly with the letters above them, the 8 in the date is improperly shaped, no die chip over eagle's beak, etc. Below is a 143 to compare it to. I don't have my books with me to look further. Naturally it'd have to be an 1827, with 40+ die marriages. LOL. Lance.
