Someone's going to be in for an unpleasant surprise...

While my knowledge of US coins is limited, I'm fairly certain that the New York copper, 2 Indian cents and bust half in the below auction are thoroughly fake.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/9-old-world...144?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c9a774e68

 

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yup. plus the Bust $1/2 looks funky

 

Yeah, whoever is spending over a hundred dollars for that lot is getting a very bad deal.

 

What is it about the 1860 cent that makes you feel it's fake?

 

First time seller....hmm.

 

I guess I'm not seeing what you're seeing. First time seller so I wouldn't buy. But if these were on the floor at a show, I wouldn't think twice about them.

 

I'm going with guilty by association on that one

 

Hm. Seller has moved one other coin lot, and that one looked like US commons and culls (with some foreign that I know nothing about).

Seems pretty unlikely to find high-grade legitimate coins traveling in that sort of company, but I can see someone gambling on the lot, especially with Buyer Protection to back them up. Hope the "winner" knows his/her business, though.

 

Yes I see why some would take a gamble, at a reasonable "gamble" price. But as you mentioned, if the winner doesn't know their business and ends up hearing the business from the TPGs, it'll still be a pricey lesson.

 

Yup. Now that eBay has mostly given up on enforcing their rules against fake coins, they're the go-to source for pricey lessons.

 

That 1860, if fake, is very convincing in that old time 2x2. I would have assumed its real especially given the packaging. Of course the colonial is false, but that is very common in groups like this that the colonials are old fakes. I literally have over 100 old colonial fakes from similar groups.

I once bought a group, in fact, just littered with crappy fake colonials and ancients. Just gawdawful fakes. So much so, I am certain everyone missed the real coins in there amongst the fakes. I got about $500 worth of good coins in the lot for about the same $150 this lot is going for, and simply threw the fakes into my junk pile.

Guilt by association is a strong reason to suspect coins, but not condemn them.

 

Definitely true, but with online photos that is sometimes a very good tool.
The holder means nothing for me. Not like very high quality copies of US coins were not around 20-30 years ago. I have also seen brand new copies that were inserted in old 2x2's, complete with aged, crusty staples. Kind of a different take on "but the coin, not the holder"
But I do wish there were more close up pictures of that 1860 available.

 

Am I missing something? $4,839

Looks like there are several shill bidders.

 

Oh jeez... this is what I was afraid would happen. I was thinking if it sold for around $500 and the 1860 turned out to be genuine (which it may be), the buyer would make out alright. But at this price someone is definitely fooled by the NY copper, which is sad since there are no more than 10 in known existence and this one has some wrong details.

 

Wow, $4839 was the final price. Foolish

 

WOW! Seller with ZERO feedback.

Winning bid:
US $4,839.00

 

Holy crap. When we were discussing the lot, the bid price was around $150.

 

Yeah someone got really screwed

 

Perhaps more likely, there were at least two knowledgeable people bidding high to make sure that an uninformed buyer didn't get taken.

 

I always hope that's the case. We will know soon enough by whether it is relisted or not.