I was doing some cleaning today and I started looking through all my coins. I saw one that is a 1861 confederate half dollar. It looks and feels real. It looks exactly like all the ones I've seen on the internet and has the ridges on the circumference just like normal us coins. How can i tell if it is real, and how much would this coin be worth?
Chances are that your coin is not real. However, it is entirely possible that it is genuine. Is there any way you could post photos of the coin? It would help us authenticate for you. Let's hope it is a genuine article.
The easiest way to tell for certain, without relying on opinions, would be to take it to a jeweler and have it weighed in grams. A genuine CSA restrike will weigh close to 12.44 grams. If yours comes close to that weight, have it inspected by a reputable Coin Dealer. While rare, over 500 were coined and it is true...sometimes these just "pop up" through old collections of whatnot and estate sales. Copies, done in lighter metal, will be under 8 grams. During the Civil War Centennial in the early sixties, many copies were made of the Half, this was prior to the "COPY" law which mandated the stamping of this word somewhere obvious on the design of the coin. Genuine or Copy, enjoy the coin for its place in the history of our country. CSA coins are exceedingly rare. most exist only as restrikes, which have came to be recognized as Confederate Coins. The ONLY true CSA coins are those 1861 O halves coined under CSA authority in New Orleans (and undetectable from those coined under Federal rule), and Four genuine CSA half dollars.
This is not entirely true. The obverse die had a large progressive die crack while it was striking CSA coins and those with the die crack can be conclusively labelled as products of the CSA.
Actually the CSA coined 1861-O half dollars using six different pairs of dies and it IS possible to identify whether an 1861-O half was coined by the US the state of Louisiana, or the Confederacy. The die that The_Cave_Troll mentioned is well known but three other obverse dies were used by the CSA to strike halves.
