I know that Daniel Carr is a member here, so maybe he can chime in. But, I'm curious, how does one add a relief to a pre-existing coin? Is it simply added on, or is there a process to "pull" the metal up? I would think it's the former, and the relief is shaped via mold and "melted" on sort of like soldering but the silver solder itself is the desired detail; and maybe a mold is set down until the initials and coin bond. Does anyone know how this is done? Thanks in advance! Pic from Daniel Carr's website:
Simple. He makes a new DIE and then overstrikes an existing coin. The metal displacement forces metal up into the die at strike time.
I should mention that he states it's an original US mint produced coin: "Each 2009-DC "proofed" Silver Eagle starts out as a US Mint produced non-proof 2009 Silver Eagle dollar with no mint mark..." http://www.dc-coin.com/1grabenercoinpressmedallionsaleprice-1-2.aspx Unless you mean that single die is for the Mint Mark only and the Mint Marks are "melted" on, one coin at a time?
No, he creates his own dies with the exact us mint design then adds his touches. The entire design you see is his copy of the original us mint designs. All, or I should say most, of the original host coin design is obliterated
Lets keep going: "The pictures accurately show what the coins look like. No photo editing was performed. There may be subtle differences between coins. Since they are over-struck on existing coins, there may be faint evidence of the original coin design showing since the overstrike is usually not perfectly aligned with the original strike. A "DC" mint mark to the lower left of the Eagle provides a marker for future identification as to the source. Do not attempt to use these as legal tender. This product is NOT endorsed or approved by the US Mint, US Treasury, or US Government."
I skimmed through that part lol. Only searched for the "DC" part. So, are his designs pretty much exactly the same, minus the initials? I wonder if coin graders could tell between the original and his coin without the initials.
Hence the reason so many consider him a counterfeiter, IMO hes know better than the Chinese counterfeiters
He doesn'teven occupy the same universe as the Chinese scum but let's not turn this thread into another he said, she said Yes, they can tell as none of his overstrikes have a "real" date on them plus you can see faint hints of the host coin design on almost all of them to various degrees as @19Lyds said
But what if he made one with a Mint issued date as opposed to a fantasy date? Would the graders be able to tell, especially if there's one with the best example closest to the original coin (i.e. the least faintest hint)?
He wouldn't. Period. He takes great steps while planning his designs so even his fantasy dated overstrikes can't be altered to imitate genuine coins. For example, All of us morgan collectors would LOVE for him to do an 1895p business strike to fill our holes but he will not because someone could alter it to pass as a circulated impaired proof.
Yes, but my point is if he were to make one using his best example, would the graders at PCGS/NGC be able to tell the difference? Or, to put it another way, can any of you DC coin owners tell the difference?
That is correct. The only time I did over-strikes that didn't clearly show a non-existent ("fantasy") date was the 2009 "proofed" Silver Eagles. But in that case, I started out with 2009 Silver Eagles so I wasn't changing the date. I did add the "DC" mint mark as an added identifier since the coin couldn't be identified as a fantasy from the date alone. PS: The picture at the beginning of this thread shows outlines of the original host coin which are not perfectly aligned with the over-strike.
So how do you add your initials? I'm not thinking of making any coins, so don't worry about competition lol. I post questions that I'm curious about. Now that I think about it, if the coin is compressed in a "contained" area, metal would have no place to go. To add the initials, you'd have to have a high pressure strike to create that relief, while the rest of the metal gets squeezed and fill in the other devices, right?
The Chinese counterfeiters don't add their initials to their product......if they did, perhaps they'd have a legitimate product?