You know you're old when it takes you 10 years 5 months and 1 day to think of an answer...oops, wrong thread...I must be OLD!
Think on this Cheech - as long as they're pickin on you, that means they're leaving somebody else alone !
I found my way to this thread to try to figure out why there are so many older cents with x's carved into the reverse. Just got a nice set of Lincoln cents and the gorgeous 1931-D, defaced by such means. Also one of my earliest eBay encounters 18 years ago was a 1917-D with the same issue. I read now that there is an old superstition that dictates you should always include a penny when gifting a knife. In doing so, you counter the risk of severing the relationship with the luck associated with a penny. The recipient then gives the coin back to the gift giver as a symbolic purchase, so the knife isn't an outright gift per se. Have yet to find a connection with marking the coin in the process, but it seems like a logical step in the ritual.
Suprised i don't see anyone else making the same assumption I've always had. Legit check. If you carve a couple real and couple fake coins, it should be easy to tell which is which with a small cut. Based on hardness, color, depth of cut vs tool used. Or maybe just verifying it's not silver plated and sum cheap crap underneath
You’re all wrong. It was a test that overseas dealers used to ensure it was real silver, not just plated silver that the fakes had on them. It was usually done overseas in Europe post WWII when the economy was ruined over there. If they have the X on them it just means they tested it (and is probably real if no iron underneath).
Congratulations you responded to a thread from 2013. Many of those members are no longer with us for whatever reason. Anyway, if you look at post #10 from one of our moderators here on CoinTalk, he gave a pretty good explanation. Please provide pictures or a reference to back up your opinion. Welcome to Cointalk