im fairly new to collecting and dont want to get burned when buying higher dollar coins. could someone please post a link to a GOOD picture of an AUTHENTIC trade dollar? i have read the post at http://www.coinworld.com/news/102102/news-3.asp 3 times and without a reference to a real one this post is basically worthless as i may end up overevaluating details that are authentic. possibly a lamens term definition of the difference if you could here's one coin im looking at atm, this person is a great ebayer but that doesnt mean they cant get fooled. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11978&item=8310517410&rd=1
Howdy skrilla - Welcome to the Forum !! The best advice I can give you is this - if you wish to collect Trade dollars, only purchase examples slabbed, graded and authenticated by either NGC, PCGS, ANACS or ICG. Buying raw examples, even from dealers with good reputations could result in you owning fakes. It is absolutely - no room for doubt - impossible to authenticate a coin based on a photograph. Conversely it is sometimes possible to say that a coin is a fake based on photo - but not always. No matter how many pictures of genuine Trade dollars you have - they won't help you determine that a given example you are considering buying is real. Buy authenticated Trade dollars only !!
Hello, Unfortunately, it's not quite as simple as just showing you a picture of a genuine example. If you are going to be spending serious money on coins, you would be well advised to educate yourself beforehand. JMHO I would suggest that you study this website very carefully before even thinking about purchasing US Trade Dollars. Trade Dollars (click on this link) You should also buy reference materials, such as the book pictured below, which is one of the standards for US Trade Dollar study. Just a note on the auction... The seller is honest, to the best of my knowledge, but the coin being auctioned is heavily damadged, and you may be very dissatisfied with it after receiving it.
You should probebly study trade dollars a little bit Theres some info on PCGS's website, or you can buy slabed trade dollars
The "cleaned" description does say something about the seller's honesty, but still . . . US Trade Dollars, like the Japanese TDs I'm more familiar with, are among the most heavily counterfeited coins ever circulated. Counterfeits come in all stages of preservation, as they many of them were created to - and did - circulate as real, rather than to fool collectors. I would never buy one without a chance to carefully examine it in hand, and I suspect that I am somewhat better qualified to judge one from its picture than you are. BTW, welcome to the forum.
Based on the last coin show I attended where fakes were plentiful, I would buy slabbed unless I did plenty of research.
