I bought this "1879 three cent nickel" online. Once in hand, I've decided it's fake. Did I make the right call? Reasons: 1) Tone and surface appearance. 2) Little to no lines in the roman "III" but nearly no wear in the wreath upper right. 3) Fat looking date 4) High detail on obverse hair at bottom, little to no detail and weak "Liberty" at top. 5) Odd "stripe" - looks like artifact of some sort of fakery? - on coin edge. Here are photos beside the best unslabbed 1879 I have at the moment, then of the apparent fake itself. Thoughts?
Mushy obverse lettering, wreath details sinking/disappearing into field, grainy surface, funky edge. I'm no expert on this series, but I've seen those features on numerous fakes in many other denominations, and never, ever on a legitimate coin.
You are right on the wreath details sinking. To the naked eye, they look good. With magnification, they start looking bad. When I first looked at it with naked eye, I was struck by how the wreath detail looked good, especially at the upper right, which seems to wear first ... but despite the wreath looking good (with no magnification), there was a nearly complete absence of lines in the Roman III. All the 3CNs I have that show no wear on the wreath also show a full bold set of lines in the III.
The III on the back lost it's stripes. Weird, for an almost uncirculated coin. I'm sorry, but I'd bid fake.
Also, the 1879 you used for reference is nice Sounds like you have a nice collection. I'm happy you got your money back.