This picture has been posted before on this site from time to time. It kind of looks like #1 to me. Can you post a picture of the reverse?
Whoops, just noticed that my original statement was a bit ambiguous. I meant to say that the second coin looks like mintmark position #1 (upper left in the picture I posted).
Yeah, that's what I'm getting at. I don't want to call it 100% genuine without a picture of the reverse (and since I'm not an expert with this series by any means), but the fact that it matches one of the known mintmark positions is a good start.
I think this is a counterfeit coin. Notice the placement of the S is too high. The VDB is not correct notice the angle of the B. the middle bar in B should be at a downward angle not straight.
I'm just not sure...the coin is up for bid...I give it a grade of vf25...push to 30?? but the "B" on the VDB is not clear and that is an important diagnostic. It's at $680 right now...what do others feel on the grade?
The V on the VDB is also an important Diagnostic. The best can be done on this coin is save your money and buy one you know is correct, not one with bad or questionable diagnostics. Regardless of the grade you think it may be.
The PCGS Coin (Coin1) is Obverse #3. The auction coin (Coin 2) if real is Obverse #1. Therefore the placement of the mint mark when comparing both coins wouldn't match. Following is a CAD Tracing depicting the mint mark placement of all four obverses recognized by the grading services. Following that is this tracing overlaid onto the two coins provided in this post.
So based on the CAD drawing - the date/mintmark is a perfect match for die #1 while based on the old newspaper article the angle of auction coin mintmark is leaning to far to the right implying a glued on mintmark?
No Following is the same CAD overlay onto the four 1909-S VDB obverses recognized by the grading services. Then following are overlays onto the four obverses depicted in the newspaper article posted by NSP in post #2 above. I have labeled this resource as Unknown Origin but it is my understanding this was published by the ANA back in the early 1980's as part of a counterfeit detection resource. This I am not certain. Keep in mind the images provided in the alleged ANA resource are low resolution and contain significant shadowing artifacts. Also they are slightly skewed. The skewing can be seen by looking at the red square I drew around the frame edges of the ANA images. Anyway with the above qualifying statements provided above - I am of the opinion the ANA resource only shows three of the four 1909-S VDB obverses recognized by the grading services. None of the coins provided in the ANA resource appear to match OBV-2 recognized by the grading services. Both OBV-2 and OBV-3 from the ANA resource indicate mint mark position of Obverse #3 as recognized by the grading services with ANA OBV-2 appearing to be the best match for OBV-3. Due to the low quality of the ANA images - I can't determine whether the coin shown as ANA OBV-2 is the same or different from the coin shown as ANA OBV-3. Look at it and give your own opinion.
