Die-Struck Counterfeit 1894-S Morgan Dollar

Great thread and photos, Hobo! I note on your closeups that the "luster" within the devices has a fine sandy or pebbly look to it which I have seen on other high quality fakes, including a trade dollar I bought on eBay not too long ago.

 

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Main Entry:counterfeit

Part of Speech:adjective

Definition:fake, simulated

Synonyms:affected, assumed, bent, bogus*, brummagem, copied, crock, deceptive, delusive, delusory, ersatz, faked, false, feigned, fictitious, fishy*, forged, framed, fraudulent, Hollywood, imitation, misleading, mock, not genuine, not kosher, phony*, pirate, plant*, pretended, pretentious, pseudo, put-on, queer, sham, snide, soft shell, spurious, suppositious, two-faced*, won’t fly, wrong

Antonyms:genuine, real, true

 

Does anyone have a theory as to why the plating is missing from the higher portions of the devices?

My theory is as follows: The coin has excellent luster and obviously has not circulated. (It is a modern counterfeit made to deceive collectors, not merchants.) So the plating would not have worn off. I wonder if the planchet was plated before being struck and the plating melded with the core metal during strking where there was the most movement of metal - at the higher portions of the devices.

Anyone one else have any better ideas?

 

At first look it seemed real to me...

 

The model coin was an 1879-S. You can see the 7 under the 9 in the date. These are the coins coming from China through ebay. The counterfeiters show an image with the word REPLICA Photoshopped on the picture, so eBay will not end the listings. The factory making these is shown in the current Coin World

 

They also produce artificially circulated coins, which look much better. Here the 1892 is genuine, the 1879-S is the fake, which weighs about 25 grams.

 

Thanks for the post and the good information in it!