recent auction find anyone like to give a grade?

Yep, no apparent patina, and the surfaces look untouched. Very suspicious, but just like you, I don't know jack about gold.

 

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+1

And I would expand on what jjack stated to take it to someone expert on gold coins, who would be very familiar with this series :thumb:

I may be completely wrong, due to my lack of knowledge of these; however, I don't see any traces of bagmarks on either side, in addition to there being little or no wear, and this coin is 151 years old?

 

Guess we better have a cheese steak.

Pat's or Geno's? lol

 

Neither, I prefer Claymont Steak Shop. Technically in Claymont, DE, but that's just a suburb of Philly... Best cheesesteaks I've ever had. if we have to go with places strictly in Philly, I will take Tony Lukes. Pats and Geno's are for the tourists, not many of the residents go to either.

Of course my mom's cheesesteaks beat the pants off of any other cheesesteak, even Claymont Steak Shop's.

 

I've had Tony Lukes, you ever try that cheese steak challenge of his?

OMG, thatsalotta!

 

I will join the crowd. From all I can make out, that looks to be a fake to me, but I am not a gold expert either.

 

Never tried it, probably going to next time I am in the city. Gonna have to gorge myself the day before and fast the day of to pull it off, though.

 

Well, ya know, every high-grade gold piece that is in a slab had to survive almost that long outside of one. It's not like the nice ones got slabbed 150 years ago.

I wouldn't be comfortable judging authenticity, but if it weighs and measures correctly, it's a pretty safe bet that it's actual gold. (If you can find something that's as dense as gold and is attracted to a magnet, I and a lot of physicists would love to hear about it!)

 

So, if this were a gold counterfeit, I wonder if it would be collectable on that basis?

 

I saw it on Man V Food on the Travel Channel. He and Adam Richman did it.

It was like 7.5 lbs. of cheese, steak, toppings, on a specially made roll.

I like Tony's better than the other two because he uses shaved rib eye in his. Pat's and Geno's uses top or bottom round I think.

 

I understand that completely.

But if you look at the enlarged photos, you'll see what Merc and I are talking about. No patina, no traces of wear, not even a bagmark anywhere, and it looks freshly minted.

When I say it would have been slabbed long ago, I meant within the last 25 years the TPGs have been around

 

Only Tungsten or Platinum will do the trick, former is brittle and hard to work with and latter is as expensive as gold.

 

Try rhenium, osmium, and iridium. but most importantly uranium.

 

Don't forget osmium, iridium, and rhenium, which are denser, but even more expensive.

For that matter, uranium is pretty cheap and almost as dense as gold. You could probably make some money that way, as long as nobody brings a Geiger counter.

Or, for that matter, neptunium and plutonium. Some of the higher transuranics are expected to be much denser, possibly almost twice as dense as gold, but you'd have trouble collecting enough of it to make a coin, and it wouldn't stick around long enough to be struck...

 

lol @uranium.

 

there are far too many problems with this coin that are apparent at a glance.

First, the color is wrong. 22K gold may tone, but this actually looks more like an alloy than 22k gold.

Second, the strike is absolutely perfect. There are no marks at all. Nothing, nada. Gold is a VERY soft metal and to find a classic gold coin (with the exception of a proof) without marks is unprecedented.

Third, the coin looks like it was minted on modern equipment. Everything looks too homogeneous. Too perfect. Every single detail in this coin is perfectly struck with absolutely no imperfections.

If I was asked I would say that's not a 151 year old gold coin. It's fake. I'd do a specific gravity test to see if it is indeed gold and (assuming it is not) would work from there. If it is gold, you at least have that.

 

First off let me say i'm no expert, I just make good observations... As with most folks on here I am very suspicious and decided to break out my trusty old Redbook. First thing I noticed is that this coin if real, is the "new reverse" style as the lettering and arrowheads are smaller then the "old style". Knowing that I am much more prone to believe it is the real deal knowing it is not a super rare version of the coin. That being said in the apparent condition it is in IMHO it is definitely an MS65+ which would still bring HUGE money in the numismatic world over the melt value of the gold, so still a big ticket item for a fraudster, but not big enough to raise brows... For the money it would bring a 1/10 oz of gold is a small investment so I can definitely see it being real gold... but a real 1861 $2.5~ eh... maybe...

The other thing which caught my eye is that in each picture the left side of the coins denticles seem to be off and run into the edge of the coin, creating a sort of seam on the side. I do not know if this is common or not on old gold coins as I know they were all hand struck up to a point?~ I think it's a bit wierd, especially if someone just minted it...

$.02
J

 

I am going to say counterfeit based off the fact that a) too clean as a coin (it would grade much higher than MS64 IMHO since it has virtually no blemishes!), and b) too sharp of rims. Unless there was some type of slow-minting process which created sharp rims most coins in the 1800s and even today have rounded rims. Compared to squared off and super sharp rims, that is (ex: Matte Proof Lincolns).

It will be interesting though to find out what is turns out to be...it appears to have cartwheel luster, meaning that this was an actual minted counterfeit (if it does turn out to be one).

 

in the part of the world where I live (Europe), auctioneers always test gold to its content before auction. In this case, I would strongly suggest to take this piece to a jeweler and let it test for gold content! As already stated, the actual gold content is not a guarantee that the coin is a genuine piece!

Diameter (18,00 mm up) and weight of this piece (4.18 g) should also not vary much from the prementioned standards.

In case these tests are all good, I would send it out to a grading company. If they grade it (what is very doubtfull to all of us at this moment), then you have a valuable coin. If not, than you have a recognized expert statement to go back to the auctioneer and demand a refund and takeback of the coin.

 

From the first pictures I thought it was Fake or Cleaned.
From the second pictures (much better) I think it's Fake or Cleaned.
But without inspecting it in person it's hard to tell.