The above coin is an obvious counterfeit that I received in a lot of US Philippine coins. While the obverse (Date Side) is obvious, the reverse was more than likely taken from a real coin. It weighs 19 grams and is made from pot metal. This example has about a 45 deg rotation as can be seen in the pictures. You might think that this would be to obvious to fool anybody, but this was purchased by another dealer (with 40+ years as a full time dealer) and then given to me with a handful of other coins. Apparently it was purchased in a large collection and was just glanced over during the initial purchase. It also means that at least one other collector was also fooled by this example, hence why I am posting this. Below is an example of a real 1903 Peso graded MS61.
The shield's not tall enough, the eagle's head looks way wrong (so do the wings, and well the whole thing really), the date is too small, the lettering is WAY off... I'm nowhere near an expert but all of these things should be pretty obvious to anyone spending more than a few seconds giving it a good look. But what I find odd is, this isn't even that particularly valuable of a coin, especially in its apparent condition (couldn't be worth more than about $30 if it was real). Why would anyone bother to fake it? Unless it was a contemporary (to 1903 or about) counterfeit rather than one made to fool collectors.
One just needs to look at the sharpness of the details , on the fake everything is rounded with less detail , where on the real one the lettering and design is sharp and more squared .
I agree, it is almost too obvious of a fake, but I already know that it has fooled two people. To the dealers credit, he purchased this as part of a collection that took him from 3:00 in the afternoon until 11:00 that night to inventory and price. He more than likely did not even turn the coin over and just looked at the reverse (figure side) of the coin. It is not a contemporary in my opinion but a modern fake. I have seen similar examples before and I have seen the same "eagle" figure on other fake coins. In the markets of Afghanistan, almost every other merchant had some fake crown type coins to include US Philippine pesos. I do not know if these originated in China or Pakistan, but I suspect both produced similar coins.
Well OK, but the question still remains, why go through all the effort to make a fake of a coin that would only be worth about $30 if it's real (my source for the $30 value is the 2013 Red Book, and guessing it looks about EF or so)? I just can't wrap my head around the fact that if someone's going to put the effort into faking a coin, why not fake a coin that you could pass off as being valuable enough to make it worth your time and money to fake. Am I just missing something here? I'm guessing why such an obvious fake got missed precisely because nobody thought it was a coin worth faking, but that still calls into question why the counterfeiter thought it was. I just have a hard time seeing how faking something like this would be worth the time, money and effort it would take to make a halfway passable fake of a not particularly valuable coin. Seems you could make more money putting those same skills to legitimate purposes. I just don't get it.
A 1903-S in EF would be about a $50 coin on the market. That said, why do the Chinese counterfeit common date wheat cents? Nobody knows... they just do... But seriously, if you could sell an ounce of pot metal as an ounce of silver in Pakistan, Afghanistan, or China... you just made enough to eat all week!
If you say so; redbook lists a 1903-S as $30 in EF, but hey they published that in April 2012 so maybe it went up since then. But still, why set your sights so low? If you had the kind of skill to make passable fakes... why not fake more valuable coins? Better yet, why not make money with those skills legitimately? Just seems so unambitious. It's like breaking into a bank and only stealing enough to buy a McDonalds value meal. Of course nobody claimed criminals were geniuses. I still can't wrap my head around this but I guess that's because I'm trying to assume people operate logically.
Because the higher the value of the coin the more closely it is scrutinized and the harder it is to get your fake to pass. If I can pass 100 $20 easily before my fake is discovered I make more money than on a $100 coin that I can only pass four or five of before they are discovered. Or I can pass 1,000 $10 coins much easier than I can pass 10 $1,000 coins
