Do you own a Red Book? If not, you should buy one. Answers to this and countless other questions can be found in the Red Book.
Does the Redbook cover counterfeit detection? To me, the pitted fields, filled in reverse letters, etc all scream cast counterfeit. Maybe better pics would help.
The obverse looks all wrong, the stars don't look right. As was stated before, the reverse of of the coin looks off too. The filled date and letters, and the whole thing looks cast. The color looks off as well. Here's a link to PCGS CoinFacts with an 1849 G$1, hopefully it will work so you can take a look. http://www.coinfacts.com/gold_dollars/1849_gold_dollar.htm
Reverse looks very wrong to me. The pitting and filled in numbers do it for me. I say it is a counterfeit with only interesting value.
Yeah, now that I look at it using my reading glasses I agree - it is highly suspect. Better, in-focus photos would be nice.
