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Message:: [QUOTE="Stephan77, post: 2130350, member: 74244"]"Not that I think I would get a counterfeit, but I have a hard time telling if one has been cleaned." I'd say chances are virtually 100% it would be a "counterfeit" with the S added, or perhaps a Chinese fake. A coin dealer told me this story years ago, a few years before grading companies came about, that he was fooled by a stranger who came into his shop, the stranger offered a 1909 S VDB to sell, the dealer examined the S very carefully and determined it was genuine, and paid the stranger around a wholesale amount. Turns out the VDB was added to the back. Yes, they took a genuine 1909 S, a nice key coin in itself, and they had so much confidence in fooling somebody, that they risked possibly ruining that coin, to "upgrade" it to a 1909 S VDB. Fooled that dealer according to his story. Frankly, he had a small coin shop and perhaps not much experience with that coin, but the story illustrates how careful you have to be out there. And buy it only from a reputable dealer, I've read where the Chinese can fake both the coin and the slab. A graded "too good to be true" price on Ebay or elsewhere from a seller without a good coin dealer reputation, will likely be just that.[/QUOTE]