went and checked at my usual "flea market" and they had a few new albums on the shelves from recent storage auctions (yeah they do all that crap hehe) Anyhoo.. came across this puppy "Willow tree 6 pence"... and they had put a tag on it for $20... I didn't hesitate I pulled it right out and bought it knowing that is was 99.9999% likely a fake. but damn it's a good copy, it's gotta be a copy right??? Tell me it's a copy please lol..... flash and no flash for you No flash are just too dark so i didn't bother to clip em
This old boy ain’t a pine tree expert. Or even a rookie for that matter…… But I too would have dropped a twenty on the chance that …. Just…. Maybe……
Have you taken it out of the capsule and taken a closer look? You could weigh/measure it. Surfaces look a little weird to me but for $20 maybe worth a shot.
I’d have had that apart in the parking lot. Lol I have been around long enough to tell you anything. But I can honor a request. “It’s fake”.
those pics are with the capsule open (not through any plastic) but I will weigh and measure it and post the results in a bit
I'm with Randy, easily worth $20 even if it's just a nice fake. PCGS says there was only one die pair but each coin was struck multiple times so they all look different. Draw your own conclusions. (would be cool if it was real ) From PCGS:
I'm going with counterfeit and it could possibly be a silver piecegood luck!!even as a counterfeit $20 was a nice deal as to me it doesn't look modern(@Jack D. Young).
Sure looks fake. Thickness will tell you in a hurry, the normal fakes are usually way too thick. Should be pretty much paper thin. There is a guy now making scary struck fakes selling on ebay, something else to worry about.
Poking around the internet, I see there are a lot of fake versions of this coin available, some look pretty good.
Still at that….. Twenty bucks was a good gamble. I spent more than that on coins that I knew were phony just for my own education…… And to be completely honest and self deprecating, back when I was a poor man I bought one of those phony gold buffalos for $29.99 on Saturday morning TV. I knew I couldn’t have the real deal, so what the heck…. I can’t believe I just said that! LOL
Being a flea market and them asking twenty and being an antique dealer, I would have asked them if they would take Fifteen for it.
And I have no idea if it’s real or fake but you asked me to tell you it’s fake so okay, it’s fake my friend.
It depends on your experience, I guess, but to an even mildly knowledgeable eye, it is an obvious fake, and not a very good one at that. Compare the lettering on the real one with the OP's - there are obvious discrepancies. Also, the real ones were minted on a rocker press, so they are thin and slightly bent. A perfectly flat Willow Tree is not normal...