...actually, Morgans, close to a dozen of them. All priced at the "shiny silver dollar" price point of $40; normal Morgan and Peace dollars are $23, and if they ever get a CC dollar (the only "key" they routinely check for), it'll be higher. These "coins" are all pretty much identical: Satiny finish, with muted luster over the whole surface Very weak/flat stars on the obverse Very few bag or handling marks -- most would probably be 65 or above Probably a dozen other flags for anyone who collects Morgans I patiently explained to a sales associate that, if those coins were real, they would represent several million dollars of value. I didn't try to get photos, because my phone camera is hardly worthwhile, and The Big Camera would make the customers nervous. In the past, this store has put out Chinese fakes at a low price, and explained to customers that they aren't real coins. I'll see whether they reclassify these. Wonder how much they paid for them....
I'm no expert, particularly on Morgans, but these were easy. They looked like they came off oddly-finished dies. But those stars were wrong -- not "crude" as on so many fakes, just wrong. If they're still there next time I go in, I'll try to get some photos with the phone. They're interesting enough that I wouldn't mind having one as an example, but I'm too cheap to pay what they're asking.
It is still my opinion that one truly doesn't know what they are looking at until they study mint state specimens.
I'm not an expert on Morgans, so I had to look these up. I was quite surprised to see that, in low grades, these are quite cheap. It isn't until AU or higher that these get to be very expensive coins. Why do you think that is?
My naive guess would be that none of them got tossed by the bagful into vaults, unlike so many other dates...? I did try to get photos, but it wasn't really worthwhile; couldn't keep out of my own shadow, couldn't hold the phone still, don't know how to keep the phone from blowing out the highlights. And I'm not going to shell out $40 to bring one of these home for better pictures. In the photo, it almost looks like an orange-peel surface, but in hand it's more satiny. Those stars from 7 to 9:00 are really weirdly low relief, even compared to the ones on the right, but I didn't see any obvious areas of "design sinking into the fields" on either face of the coin. I was too discouraged with the photo setup to bother imaging the reverse; I didn't note anything obvious there, except the same finish, and the same lack of bag marks. I'm still 100% convinced these are fakes -- nearly a dozen extremely-high-grade 1901-P Morgans walk into a pawn shop? And like I said, the surface texture is wrong. If I think about it, I'll take the pocket scale and a magnet next time I go in.
I’ve definitely seen worse counterfeits, this one isn’t actually that bad. Millions were melted because of the Pittman Act and there are very few high mint state pieces known.
Just to add to the heartburn, checked the weight on one of them: spot on (26.74 on my pocket scale, same as other MS Morgans).
Attention newbies: Step away form the USB microscope and read up on the INTERNATIONAL effects of the Pittman Act, from the U.S. to Great Britain to India. You'll be the better numismatist for having done so.
