First of all it is not round, the milled coins of this period were. Secondly, look at it and compare it to the slabbed example you posted. Can you not see the differences ?
hmmm... Well, I'm not saying I disagree with you as I'm not an expert here and I greatly value your opinion. It's just Some things just seem really odd to me if you are correct. First off, there are many heritage auctions that have sold gold escudos from this era that are off balance looking like mine, some more so. So if these coins were only milled round, I'd think the majority of these are fake as well. http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=3000&Lot_No=51160 http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=3000&Lot_No=51159 http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=3000&Lot_No=50946 http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=458&Lot_No=50636 http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=9441&Lot_No=67471 http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=44001&Lot_No=74146 etc. I am not sure what heritage's policy on selling fakes is, but I would would find it scary if fakes were this prevalent on such a trusted auction house. Also, the one posted has the correct dimensions and weight. I'm certain it's gold. These seem to carry very little premium over melt in low grades like mine, so its funny to me that they would counterfeit one in low grade like mine using real gold. Lastly, I bought this from a reputable dealer that guarenteed it authentic. This wasn't from ebay or anything(i refuse to buy raw gold on the bay anymore). All this said, you may very well be right about it being a fake. It's just weird to me.
I cannot say with certainty that it is fake, but I sure do think it is. Only way to know for sure would be to have it authenticated.
fair enough. I'm curious if the fake escudos are struck in gold at the appropriate weight(like some of the high end us fakes)? or were they just crude contemporary counterfeits? That would tell me a lot. If the coin has been cleaned, is there a valid tpg to send it to? I don't think anacs does foreign coins. Seriously though, look up "carlos gold escudo" on heritage. Not just some of them, but the majority of the 1 escudos from late 1700s to early 1800s have a lopsided look with denticals of many different lengths just like mine. Anyways, Im confident that the composition of the coin is gold. I spent a small premium over melt for the coin(it's a low grade and may be cleaned), so I'd be bummed if it were fake but not really out anything. The coin also has some nice darker toning in hand that isn't really noticable on the pics. I'm sure that can be faked too, but it seems a lot of effort for such a small payoff in the case of this coin. Is there anything else besides the lopsidedness of the denticals that make it seem fake?
Yeah, the surfaces of the coin - looks like a cast copy to me. And if you look at your pics there is an edge visible that should not be there - again like a cast coin would have. Now there are legitimate reasons that could explain all of those things as well. But I'm going with my gut, just based on the look of the coin. I've been wrong before, I will be again. But I'm right far more often than I'm wrong. If it were me, I'd send it to NGC or PCGS. ANACS and ICG could do it too, but I don't have as much faith in them as I used to. I could even tell you private individuals who could authenticate the coin, world renowned experts. And their word is as good as any.
