1921 Peace Dollar - Need your Help!!

Hello all,

I am new to this site and had just started collecting coins about a year ago and am working on finishing my peace dollar set and recently bought a 1921 peace dollar on ebay and just received it and after comparing with my other peace dollars was worried it might be a fake. After reading up on it, I realized that the 1921 peace dollar was a high relief coin and doesnt exactly match the other years completely in every tiny detail. I weighed the coin and it was right on and the measurements also was right on. The only thing was that the coin looks very very slightly thicker than my others but this also might just be me thinking it because it really isnt even enough to measure. Anyway, I just wanted to know how else to find out if this could be a fake without ruining the coin in any way. Also if it is real, I was hoping to get some of your expert opinions on what it might grade and be worth. Thank you all so much and I look foward to any help you can give me. I know to be cautious when buying on ebay and really only buy from someone who I know is trusted and had good ratings and feedback and is also willing to do a return. The more that I look at some of these counterfeit coins on ebay though, the more worried I get acout any coin I buy since especially the peace dollars look so much like the originals to me. Here are the pics of the coin. Thanks again and God Bless you all!

 

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1921 Peace Dollar - is this real?

Hello all,

First off, I posted this thread on the coin grading forum earlier and didnt know if that was the right place so now I am posting it here. I am new to this site and had just started collecting coins about a year ago and am working on finishing my peace dollar set and recently bought a 1921 peace dollar on ebay and just received it and after comparing with my other peace dollars was worried it might be a fake. After reading up on it, I realized that the 1921 peace dollar was a high relief coin and doesnt exactly match the other years completely in every tiny detail. I weighed the coin and it was right on and the measurements also was right on. The only thing was that the coin looks very very slightly thicker than my others but this also might just be me thinking it because it really isnt even enough to measure. Anyway, I just wanted to know how else to find out if this could be a fake without ruining the coin in any way. Also if it is real, I was hoping to get some of your expert opinions on what it might grade and be worth. Thank you all so much and I look foward to any help you can give me. I know to be cautious when buying on ebay and really only buy from someone who I know is trusted and had good ratings and feedback and is also willing to do a return. The more that I look at some of these counterfeit coins on ebay though, the more worried I get acout any coin I buy since especially the peace dollars look so much like the originals to me. Here are the pics of the coin. Thanks again and God Bless you all!

 

Have you weighed it?

 

My impressions are that it is not a cast coin. I cant see any evidence of that, and it is too accurate to have been struck with a forged die.

It appears to have heavy wear on it which is also a good sign.

That leaves altered date as the only way it may not be authentic. I cant tell from your pics. Take a good look at the last one and see if the metal appears to be disturbed around it.

My best guess is that it is authentic. If you really want to know, sent it off and get it slabbed.

 

. Well it really doesn't matter if the coin is worn and it were a fake ,somebodycould have put it into circulation and passed maybe not even realizing it may be a fake' so that theory is excluded from the coin maybe being authentic.The coin does look ok to me, but sometimes you really can't tell until you weigh it.

JC

 

The rims do look funny, but I think that is the photo. My theory on the wear is that it is too good of a fake to be done long ago IMO. And since it has even wear that looks like circulation wear, I doubt it was made in China last month. More pics from different angles would help.

 

It looks real to me. I don't see anything that points out that it is a fake. The 1921s that I have seen have rims like that being it is in high-relief.

 

You mean like the OP already has;

 

I really spent a lot of time studying this coin and agree with what both of you are saying. There were a few things that threw me off too which made me suspicious but after closer examination I still am not sure. The weight was exactly the same as my others which was 26.7 grams and the size was exactly the same at 38 mm. Like I said, the only thing a little off was it looked very slightly thicker than the others but even that I am not 100% that is the case. There are jsut a few features that seemed a little different then my others like the nose a tad larger and on the reverse, the bottom right corner ground lines seemed different then the other years but when comparing it with other 1921 peace dollars, they were the same. The numbers looked a little thicker also then the others, but once again, it seems that was also what it looked like on the other 1921 coins. Other than that, the mouth of the beak and the eye was about the only other thing, and once again same as other 1921 but maybe a little diff than other years. Thats why I dont know what else to do other than send it away, which by the time I would get it back I would not be able to return it, plus I dont want to spend that much more on it. Thanks for your input though, any other thoughts?

 

The 1921 is different compared to the other years because it is a high-relief. The other years 1922-1935 are low-relief.

 

By the way, I have been using a 15 power loupe to look at all of the details which is why I am saying that certain things may have looked a little different. I just want you to know I am talking about very very very slight differences under heavy magnification and even those seem to match up with the 1921 series just not with the other years, which I am assuming that is because it is a high relief year. I might as well tell you all that I paid around $95 for it which even if it is real probably isnt the best price for this coin in this condition, or maybe it is, there is such a varience on ebay that its hard for me to tell. I am just trying to finish a set and maybe should have shopped around longer for a better deal. What do you all think? What is a good price for a 1921 in this condition?

 

You paid about right for a 1921.

 

I see absolutely nothing to lead me to believe that this coin is fake. If it weighs, (which you said it does) then it appears to be genuine, so I would say that it is indeed genuine and not a fake.

 

SO I guess my paranoia is coming more from the fact that I am buying a lot of my coins on ebay and I just keep reading about the horror storries of fake coins flooding the site. ALso, I guess that the 1921 definately was different than the other years being that it is a high relief which I wasnt really expecting to notice any difference. Thanks you all for your help and please any other feedback would be greatly appreciated. By the way, if you respond, let me know how long you have been collecting and what you favorite coin you own is? I am trying to get to know some people on this and just thought I would get some interaction going here.

 

IMHO, the coin is genuine! There is no evidence of an altered last digit in the Date as, 1. a "4's" (as in 1924) vertical bar is tapered (thinner) above the horizontal crossbar and the separation between the "2" and the "1" appear normal and 2. note that the thickness of the Rays on Miss Liberty's Crown are thicker than on a 1924 Peace Dollar. The coin will also appear thicker as the rims are higher on the High Relief Peace Dollars due to the higher pressure strike.


Frank

 

:computer:
U could try a magnet
I will let some one better to grade

 

Thanks, that was very helpful. You have all been so very helpful, and it amazes me how much that you all know. I am just going to try sit back and absorb all of this good information. By the way, I will be posting some other peace pics that I want to get your opinions on. I bought a partial set from someone and they were all in a very old coin book and had taken on a lot of toning and tarnishing (though I dont exactly know the exact difference of these two) and some of them have a beautiful full multi color reverse on them and some have a not so appealing reverse. I know that you should never clean your coins, and most of them I really love the colors on them but there are a few that have some ugly dark spots on them and I dont know if those ones are worth cleaning at all. They look to be in good condition but on some you cant even see them because they are so covered. So I will post some pics if any of you would like to see them. Take care, and thank you all again!

 

Also, is it me, or do the 1921 peace dollars look to have a slightly different nose on them then the other years. I know that a lot of the fakes I have seen look to be more exagerated than this (almost like miss liberty got a nose job), but it also seems that the 1921 has just a slightly larger nose. Am I crazy or not?

 

You have weighed the coin & inspected / compared the details to a known genuine coin. Here is a photo of a genuine 1921 courtesy of coinfacts:

http://www.coinfacts.com/silver_dollars/peace_dollars/peace_dollars.html

So far, you have accumulated a few good indications that you have a genuine coin. Here are a couple more tests for you to consider:

#1
Just take a look at the coin with your bare eye and next to other circulated Peace dollars. Does it look funny or does it belong to the group? (Don't worry about the weakness of strike at the center because that is normal for the high relief 1921).

#2
Holding the coin on your finger-tip (over a soft surface in case you drop it) and tap it on the edge with a pencil. Listen to the ring. Compare this sound to the ring from some other Peace dollars. They should all sound like struck 900 silver with some stress in the metal. (Struck coins have stress & ring where cast coins are often made of different materials with neutral stress and produce a more dull sound). If they all ring about the same, then you have another indication that you have a genuine coin.

Very best regards,
collect89

 

I have to go with the current on this one and agree it's genuine. Remember, high-relief gets "low" real quick when it wears, especially to the point this one's at. Meaning, I wouldn't put all my eggs in that high-relief basket (in this case) to discriminate between a counterfeit.