bkstyl, posted: "With this fooling so many people and after getting the PCGS results, I thought posting here and getting feedback from more experienced people would prove to be a teachable moment for me and maybe help others in the process." You must be a very new collector. Something you should consider in the future: While these online chat boards a populated with some very experienced collectors and dealers, experience alone measured as time-in-the-business, the number of collections you have assembled, chat room friends, etc means absolutely nothing. Experience gets you a "name" and a following. Many of the folks at PCGS have the experience to call themselves authenticators. I'll bet few of us here do. So, If you want a second opinion from that given by a major TPGS, YOU SEND YOUR COIN TO ONE OF THE OTHER THREE!
Every detail on that coin screams fake...send it to ANACS and when it comes back counterfeit, then you know you can't sell it as genuine. It looks like a very old counterfeit to me...I hear there's thousands of them out there, so NEVER buy one unless you are an expert on raw Trade Dollars.
Thanks. I wanted to get feedback as to what would make it receive the counterfeit label. PCGS doesn't provide why (nor should they). I was hoping to get feedback for educational purposes so that I know what to look for moving forward. Of course, if everyone thought it was real I would have sent it to NGC but seeing what everyone pointed out there is no need getting another company to look at it. I want to thank everyone for the replies and the knowledge shared. It has been a learning experience that will benefit me, and hopefully others.
Take a punch and mark in "COPY" in very deep punches. Someone else is bound to be caught by that sooner or later.