1874 type 3 $1 DDO or beautiful counterfeit?

I recently came across this beautiful $1 gold piece and immediately seen the thick lettering on the obverse. I bought it and once home and able to observe much closer, it didnt take much to see the strong spread across the obverse and maybe even, a very light spread on the reverse. Excited, as I'm sure you could imagine, I posted to a group trying to get any info, I couldnt find any.. I got some likes and awesome find's until I was told it was counterfeit and the comment section disabled. I couldnt believe it, weight checks out, I'm thinking if that's a counterfeit it's a beautiful one.. I feel like now, I must tell you the back story of this coin and many that I have.. On the upper left hand side of this coins slip and many other coins that I have, display the number seven. I noticed that the coins barring the #7 had an error and at the antique store when I went back to buy the rest, I asked the owner the meaning of the seven and he tells me, it's to keep track of the overall total of a previous estate owners property, that he had passed away and had owned a coin shop in the early 80 mid 90s. So, makes me wonder why this man would collect a counterfeit coin and its beautiful, why wouldn't whoever made it, not make it a better date? Any info would be great, I was gonna send it off to get graded surely they'll know more up close and personal with it. Thank you and I apologize for such a long paragraph.

 

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IDK if it is real or fake. Just because someone own's a coin store (if that story is factual) doesn't nec. make him an expert on all coins, and he could still buy a counterfeit without knowing it. Coin shops buy entire collections and don't always know every single coin they are getting. A man dies. A widow comes into the shop and sells the collection. He lowballs her. She has no idea if it's a fair deal or not. He ends up with some of these pieces before finding out for himself if they are real or not. You can say this is a terrible scenario, and I agree. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen all the time. Whenever money is involved there is always someone looking to take advantage of someone else.
He goes to a coin show where he has a friend who specializes in gold and he can get an informed opinion.
There are people here who could tell you if it is real or fake.
I would wait for some expert opinions before sending the coin for grading.

 

Is it supposed be so oddly lumpy? Meow thinks it looks cast.

 

I’m inclined to believe that all of those extra lumps near the letters are due to a coin being copied into a die and restruck. But this isn’t my area of expertise. @micbraun @Rheingold

 

Before making a call, I’d like to see MUCH better pictures of the coin outside of the flip. What’s the exact weight and diameter? 1874 is a very common year, do you have a known good example for comparison?

I was told to look at the rims to identify counterfeits. If they look weird or unequal, it’s likely not the real deal. Lumps are a red flag too, of course. Next are letters and digits to look at. I hope this helps.

 

I'll get that for you, thx

 

That's interesting.

 

That's a coin I would send in....there are some signs I don't wanna see on a real one.
The rim especially obverse near 7 o' clock makes it suspicious.
The color is a lttle odd, too....
But as said before, there are Specialists.....NGC or PCGS would be my choice. Just for clarification.

 

@ToughCOINS @jwitten Would you two care to give your opinion?

 

I'll just add this.... Gold dollars are notorious for die clashes. What appears to be a grainy surface may potentially be a die clash given different lighting.

 

Good point about clashing. @Kevin Trivett any chance you can get better photos? Do you have a loupe? If you put it in front of your phone camera and shoot some more. Don’t use zoom on your phone. It won’t make the photo any larger, it’ll just pixelate it.

 

Ok.. Sorry for the wait, I do have a loupe and man that takes getting used too, taking pics through a loup . Haha I hope these pics help and any questionable areas that you would like a closer look, please point it out, whatever you need and agai . thank you all. Ok, everything seemed to check out as far as weight that hit 1.7, on my scales that only read to the Gram, unfortunately. The rim looked evenly consistent throughout, diameter is a heavy 14 from rim to rim. I did however see what appears to be some clashing, in different lighting as Randy suggested and upon closer examination clashing is very visible along with LDS. Question.. Aren't DC and DS often used as die markers on a doubled die coin? Loupe pictures up next.

 

Loupe

 

Last 10.

 

Kevin, we asked for better pictures, not for more pictures of the same “quality” ;-)

Below picture makes me believe your coin is a counterfeit:



1) mushy details
2) weak denticles 12-3 o’clock
3) LIBERTY can’t be read at all
4) lumps are all over the place
5) some letters appear to be doubled/bold
6) diameter should be 15mm, not 14mm

 

I'm not sure what's going on, but your photos aren't coming out any better. You need two things: a good light source and decent megapixels. If you have a smart phone, your camera should do just fine. Place the loupe directly on the camera lens, as if you were holding it to your eye. The loupe should literally be resting on your phone. I hold them together in one hand. Stare at your phone and the picture it's about to take and wait until it adjusts to the sharpest image.

 

This one is in my collection. Simple photo with my cell phone with overhead lighting. Die clash very evident all around her headdress.

 

I'm sorry I tried, even had the phone supported and free of shaking hands. I'm all ears to any suggestions or pointer that would better help me get the best pictures so that I can give yall so that I can get the best results. 15mm, I'm glad you brought that up.. I've honestly never really used anything to measure a diameter but a measuring tape, very inaccurate so I had gotten a reading with a compass , (I believe it's called) the other day and was gonna post it along with the weight pic but was unfamiliar with reading one, so I sent the pic to him and asked for his help, this was the result of what he sent back. I just want to do this right. Thank you for you time and if theres anything youd like me to do, please do tell.

 

Ok, I'll get you better pics of only the sharpest detail. Thank you and if theres anything in particular, just let me know. Thx