Hi, I have an 1846 Seated Liberty which I would unofficially grade as "Good" to "Fine" (you can clearly make out four letters of the word Liberty). (See attached scan.) It has an interesting error. The "United" on the reverse of the coin is clearly doubled. It is a very clear and discernible on both strikes. I read on another thread that errors during this period were common but still there were likely many more coins minted with no errors, so logically any around today should have both age, scarcity value as well as error value. Is this reasoning sound? Does anyone know of another 1846 exactly like this and what it might have been appraised for? Thanks, Joe
I for some reason can't view your scan, perhaps you didn't attach it correctly. There are a lot of counterfeit seated liberty dollars circulating with very very strong doubling. I'm not sure if yours is one of those though.
1846 Error Hi Zaneman, The coin is silver, has no lines indicating a mold. How can I check to see if it might be counterfeit or prove it is a genuine US mint error?
Photo (bitmap) attachment 1846 Dollar Hi Zaneman, I have tried to bitmap copy the scan and will attach it for you to look at. Thanks, Joe
It is a worthless counterfeit. Hold on and I'll get a couple of scans of similar ones. Unfortunately, that doubling is one of the common diagnostics of that particular coin being fake.
Photos of Error Apparently my pix of the coin are too large at 113k so they would not attach. I will try a lower resolution and attach later.
It won't matter. It's a counterfeit. I'd send you mine, identical to yours, free of charge except I'm keeping it as a lesson.
Here is a picture of one owned by forum member Dos Mundos: Obverse Reverse and here is a picture of SuperDave's: Obverse Reverse both of these coins are photographed in this Thread I'm sorry, but that particular doubling of UNITED is one of the EASY give-aways that those coins are counterfeit.
1846 Error (Apparently on my part) Thank you to Cave Troll and others who were kind enough to respond to my posting. Who, I wonder, was going to the trouble to mint a duplicate of a coin 150 years ago? Why wouldnt they (counterfeiters) cull out the duplicated "United" so they would not give away that the coin was not genuine? What is the market like for coins of this nature and age? Seattlecoins
Odds are it was actually made fairly recently - not 150 yrs ago. There were contemporary counterfeits - but I don't think that's one of them.
These counterfeits are currently being made and sold to collectors from China. Interesting as they get every diagnostic of the coin correct on some of the better examples, but one area they are still having problems with is the dates on the coins. They still do not look right. You can look at the date and the style of the numbers and quickly determine the coin is a fake.
1846 "United" Doubled Hi, it is a great opportunity to learn, thanks to guys like you and others who responded. The interesting thing about this coin is that the guy that was selling it didnt know, or mention that it was an error coin. It was among many other old coins (US & foreign) loose in a box. Another sign that they were not trying to knowingly pawn off a fake coin is that they were only asking a pittance for the coin. What is the market like for coins like this? Are there those who collect them and what might the value be in spite of it's suspicious origins? Seattlecoins
There are markets for these coins, lots of them sell in places like Russia where people want to collect exotic stuff but not pay a lot of money for the original. In Odessa I bought an 1825 Ruble, in silver, not cheap tin, but real silver, but it still is a fake. I think I paid about 20 Hryvnia for it, about $8 US. It is very easy to buy these fakes in Russia, most everybody knows they are fake, and they are priced as fakes. But they still make a profit for the faker-maker.
Define pittance. These things are available in China in quantity for $2 apiece or less. If he sells it for $15 he's made a 700% return on his investment.
