Can anyone determine if this a counterfeit 1850 Braided Hair Cent

Unfortunately @SensibleSal66 you only need to refer to @Jack D. Young, he has documented many fakes in multiple denominations. The 1 cent coins are not immune to counterfeiting

 

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N-4 to my eyes; nearly horizontal line through the "T" of CENT matches. Weight is fine/ within tolerance.

I would call it genuine unless there is an obvious edge seam...

 

Refund and avoid the negativity and save your reputation.
JMO
Phil

 

Hopefully not off topic, but there are MANY counterfeit large cents out there!

Coin Week just re-posted my article on the group of 1798 ("S-158") large cents at:

https://coinweek.com/counterfeits/s...n9ieVilNTdJBS8dx9D147B9E5oDOJ7bXjyGvZSiKJsf4k

Of the group, I own 3 examples, all in genuine TPG holders...

 

I suspect the buyer had some remorse and couldn't live with the obvious damage to the coin. The piece itself looks legit to me but I am far from an expert. I would just refund their money and move on.

 

I don't have any opinion on the authenticity of this coin. I do have an issue with the weight being the reason for damning it. It has been speculated that large cent planchets' weights would vary by 10, maybe even 15, grains at the time. The .39 grams would only be 6 grains.

Unlike silver and gold coins, coppers were not legal tender; the mint didn't have much incentive to be overly concerned from coin to coin. That being said, the mint did decline shipments of planchets from suppliers from time to time.

 

Good for you.... !!

 

Good eye Jack!

 

So the weight as well at 10.5 rather than the 10.89 is not a concern with it being circulated and worn?
I really appreciate everyone taking a look at this. I think what happens is that people have been sold so much fake online that they begin to think everything they receive is fake. And that's a shame. She said just because of my responding to her and going through the trouble to get her refund that she knew I was trustworthy and sorry for the trouble but she would continue to do business just because I didn't discount her or give her a hard time over it. I was treated really badly one time over a return of heavily polished morgan's even got called a liar - it was one of the worst experiences and if I was a young collector I think I would have wanted to quit collecting all together because of the experience. Im a good seller but Im also a good buyer and the only thing I could think was I can't believe that this man would be satisfied only with 100.00 sale and no repeat business. I always have had dealers that say take this get it checked out pay me in couple weeks and I could not imagine having had it any differently in order to absolutely love collecting coins and I certainly wouldn't want to be any way responsible for making someone feel that they didn't even want to buy or collect coins.

 

Right that is what i thought Byron but the weight was probably her only way after losing hundreds of dollars elsewhere to check in one way. Not with me this was low dollar item but she had several other coins that were fake and out hundreds of dollars

 

X marks the spot, but it does mean it's not real. Good as a filler, maybe! Good luck.

 

Absolutely I don't save my reputation I keep it lol. Ive initiated after the first comment. My profile says I don't argue over money or junk- junk can be anything materialistic and I don't have the energy for that. )

 

Thank you Jack! Believe it or not your article was one of the only things I could find for information as to counterfeit large cent so thank you for your opinion it means alot.

 

The damage on it does mean it's not real?

 

Counterfeiters do a great amount of damage to the Hobby. In my opinion they should be hung by their thumbs.

 

So to finish all this up after spending all day responding and trying to figure out how to get this lady refunded she decided she was going to keep it after all it was meant to be!!! She will be back to do more business in the future. Wow! I still learned a lot through all this about large cent because I would think the same way the other guy did in who would waste their time but we all know the answer to that. So again thanks everyone!!

 

Glad everything worked out!

I didn't have anything in the way of expertise to add to the discussion. But one thought that I did have was that: If were going through the trouble of scratching a coin to indicate that it was fake, then instead of big Xs, I would just scratch "FAKE" into a field. Seems a lot more efficient and effective