This week at ANA Summer Seminar I took the 'Detection of Counterfeit and Altered US Coins' course. (This is the second time I have taken this course.) The first day of the course a 16-year-old boy in the class showed a Seated Liberty dime to another student and asked him if it looked OK. He had bought it from a dealer because he didn't have a Seated dime and liked it. (The dealer sold it as a low grade, genuine coin.) The other student told him it looked fake. By the end of the course I think the kid knew how to easily spot a fake like this. I ended up buying the coin from him (at a substantial profit to him) to add to my collection. The coin is a contemporary counterfeit of an 1885 Seated Liberty dime and was intended to circulate. The counterfeiter made the dime so he could spend it and make a profit. It cost him a lot less than 10 cents to make the dime because it has no silver in it. The counterfeiter was probably able to pass off the counterfeit by mixing it in with other coins so it would not get scrutinized by the recipient. The dime is the correct diameter but weighs only 2.22 grams; a genuine coin should weigh 2.50 grams. Note the lack of detail in all areas of the coin, both obverse and reverse. The first two letters of UNITED are are lost and the 1 in the date is very weak. There are several repeating depressions. Note the huge raised lump of metal on the obverse between Liberty's elbow and knee. Also note the HUGE tool marks crossing the reverse fields. Enjoy!
I used to collect these but I gave up when all the China stuff started showing up so much. I don't think I could pick out what's contemporary any more. This is the only one I have a good image of.
Dumb question what makes the letters being "weak" vice them caused by a greased filled die and/or rough cleaning (that coin looks like it was cleaned w. a brillo pad). With the lack of details, couldnt that have been caused by normal wear progression through the life of the coin?
shoe: In the OP picture, the weak lettering is from the die that the counterfeiters created. They were just sloppy.
Treashunt is correct. The counterfeit dies didn't pick up a lot of detail from the original, genuine coin. The detail was never on the die so any coins struck from those dies will not have that detail. A coin just struck from those dies would have very weak details even though it would be completely uncirculated. In fact, it is not uncommon to see counterfeit coins that appear to be XF or AU but have mint luster in those areas of the coin that are "worn".
Nah. The dealer probably didn't look at the coin carefully and thought it was just another low-grade Seated Dime. He sold it to the kid for $3. I paid the kid substantially more than that.
He sold a seated liberty dime for $3? How long ago was this?! I would like to get in on this deal . But on a serious note, if anyone's offering you a seated dime for only $3, wouldn't you be a little suspicious of the coin?
