I was a new employee at the shop I worked in for 44 yrs. and the metal detecting bug hit our dept. hard after one of the guys bought a "Whites" and took it with him on a vacation in Virginia. He made a huge find in a old foundation and after hearing the stories half the dept. bought a detector. I wanted one but we were expecting our first child and the wife put her foot down even after I told her it would pay for itself. One of our new treasure hunters came in with a Large Cent found on a hunt and was showing it around. I had never seen one and was duly impressed with it's age so I talked him into selling it to me for a couple of bucks. It was found pierced and had been soaked in copper cleaner and scrubbed with steel wool. (his words) It was really ugly but it was mine. Years later I got a deal on a Dansco and started filling holes. I came upon that forgotten first cent in the jewelry box on our dresser and it found a new home in the 1847/7 hole. Recently I was checking out MA-shops in Europe and cherry picked its replacement, (That was on 3/17 and it is still in customs) so I took a couple of pics of it and sold it on eBay for the whopping sum of $3.81. It wasn't about making money on the coin but about letting somebody fill a tough variety hole at what they could afford. Today I got a note from the buyer informing me that the coin was a under weight cast replica. He noted the coin weighed in at 10.1 which is light. Jim told me the harsh cleaning was done because there was so much corrosion and it was impossible to tell what was there. I'm of the opinion that the weight loss was because the removal of the heavy corrosion on the coin worked much like a acid bath. Any other ideas?
It has a hole in it. The metal from the hole is gone. Add in some corrosion and the coin is light. How light from those two mishaps is the question. What if it was light when the coin was minted? Is his weight 10.10 or 10.19?
I agree with the above answer. I see nothing wrong that suggests this is a fake, but I'm not an expert on these. I believe @Jack D. Young has some expertise in this area.
I see no reason to call it a counterfeit- edge view would be helpful. A friend has 7 1847 cents ranging in weights from 10.0 to 10.5 grams; your weight for this one would be normal especially for the condition. Hard to tell from the condition whether N-2 or N-31. If it gets returned I would be happy to give it a new home!
I think your coin is not counterfeit. It lost some mass from the hole and the corrosion and cleaning. What does he expect for $3.81?
I never determined which variety it is. The fine cracking on the rev. of the N-31 that Newcomb mentioned in his description is all but invisible on this unc. example sold at Heritage. I assumed it to be a N-2 because of the rarity factor.
In all fairness to the buyer of the coin he never stated he was unhappy or did he make any threats. I feel he had a specified weight for the coin and it was light. He only wanted to state his feelings and did say he would leave positive feed back. I posted here to see if my explanation had any credence.
