Back when I was emailing directly a known Chinese buyer of American coins through the "Bay" he sent me images of some of the "coins" he had for sale. One group image included a low resolution image of an 1847 Hawaiian cent, and I pretty much tucked it away for future reference... As we continued to research the recent deceptive struck fakes we tied several bad Bay sellers together and started to scrutinize all of their offerings where this example surfaced: From it we marked some of the circulation marks we thought significant and useful for looking for more. And looking at two other connected sellers we found the following certified examples: As luck would have it a blind internet search turned up this example from Hong Kong! It is significant to note the date for this one, 2010! Continued searching "discovered" this example from a 2014 Stacks auction, NGC certified AU-58; we thought we may have found the genuine source coin, and it looks a lot like the Baldwin example... But of course, that was NOT the end of the saga! As of today two more examples have turned up, with the following being a much better candidate for the source. Also from a Stacks auction (2013) this one is the highest graded example documented, as NGC MS-64. I have some more digging to do to find the cert number of this one. The better images and sharp detail allow for a better opportunity to highlight more possible matching marks, an aid in identifying additional members of this family. And the last example added to the group is from a 2011 Stacks auction, this one noted as ANACS certed AU-50; I have added white circles to it as with the others to show some of the more obvious matching marks. Finishing the analysis and planning to write the summary article soon; as in my other articles I will note that there is a genuine example here somewhere, but without a doubt a counterfeit or two as well! Best, Jack
This has a different obverse and reverse than the current suspects, but the same obverse as milesofwho. So far, not a match, but Hawaiian coins were showing up a little too frequently for the supposed rarity.
I have a Metcalf 4 milesofwho appears to have a Metcalf 5. The current suspects are Metcalf 2 At the risk of putting too much in Jacks thread, I will present my attribution work on the Hawaiians here with the idea that attribution is one step toward identifying the counterfeits. I created a simple obverse number with reverse letter designation to match Sheldon methodology for the Hawaiians. 2CC Metcalf Obv desc Rev desc Sales Rarity 2CC 1 1 crosslet A 18' 3 Second 2CC 2 1 crosslet B 15 7x8 80 Sixth 2CC 6 2 plain B 15 7x8 2 Rarest 2CC 3 2 plain C 17' 7 Fourth 2CC 4 2 plain D 15 8x7 5 Third 2CC 5 2 plain E 13 18 Fifth Time to walk. I'll post photos when I return. ps All Photos are from Heritage Archives whether labeled or not. Information is from Heritage Auction Descriptions.
Just an error correction (8+7=15) for Reverse D in case anyone decides to use the photos for attribution:
I noticed the same thing that Hawaiian cents were showing up more often than in the past. I had thought someone must have been hording the and is now slowly selling them.
Rarity is a very crude sample of coins in Heritage Auctions which are labeled with Metcalf ID. ie Quick and Dirty. It is not an estimate of the number of survivors after the recall and melt in 1900. It is like the pathfinder sample of water tests on Oak Island with a sample of 12.
I ran across the source for rarity survey. https://coins.ha.com/itm/coins-of-h...6-2646.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515
Jack, I bet you see fake coins in your nightmares. LOL They seem to find you no matter where you are.
The two that were certified, was the certification authentic or was that forged too? There's so many of them, the fake is probably being used to authenticate others somewhere.
I'm doing a survey of Heritage Archives. So far I'm through 21 of 643. So far, all Medcalf 2s(15) and 6s(6). Only 4 raw coins.
Yeah, then i think if you had access to whatever resources all those coin grading services use you'd find a fake one in the list of samples and those very same die markes you're using to prove their forgeries are being used to validate authenticity. The farther out in time and place in the smaller parts of the planet, the less likely there's an expert or documents or much in reference at all and the higher the chances of a fake coin making into the books before getting caught, and the longer it stays in there the more coins authenticate against it, the harder the pill to swallow to try and turn around and invalidate all those coins..... That's my guess anyway...