This came up in @Jack D. Young ‘s Facebook group about counterfeits. Many individuals say it is an obvious fake because of the eagle’s head and the feathers on the upper left wing (they have a point). However, the corresponding area on the obverse is also unnatural, making me think that a chopmark was tooled away and repaired. Of note is that there appears to be a DDR, and the mintmark style is distinctive. To my (limited) knowledge of trade dollars, this does not correspond to any reverse dies of 1875 CC trade dollars. I know we have a trade dollar guru on this forum, anyone know who it is? @Paddy54 @C-B-D This might be a result of a die transfer of a genuine repaired coin. Any thoughts?
I think this is a counterfeit. I once had a DDR counterfeit, but it was an 1877-S. It was quite convincing. So much so I sent it in to PCGS. A member here actually bought it for $50 or so to add to their studies, though I can't remember who it was. It was several years back. Back to the coin in question. There are a lot of design elements that are incorrect. The head and face, the folds of the gown, the eagle head and feathers. Those stand out to me.
Yes John I agree 100% now is it a decent one I say so....as yes it does scream to us....however the average Joe would be clueless. And sure it has fooled msny.
I mean, if someone is going to repair a chop and re-engrave the design elements, why would they not know the design which they must re-engrave? Seems to me that if they're talented enough to fill and repair a chop, which would likely require bending/manipulating the coin itself, (since the chops make areas of the coin concave on one side and convex on the other)... actually let me just stop right there. Unless there were a single chop or perhaps two that were very shallow, more shallow than typical authentic chop marks, it would be darn near impossible to undo the convex/concave problem, IMO.
