I saw this turn up on Ebay for less than 24 hours by a reasonably reputable looking small time dealer, but then Ebay nuked the auction (page not found). I was really studying it hard and I just don't see how it could be anything other than a near worthless knock off maybe worth $100 to someone collecting oddball material. Large Cents can be really dangerous with the fakes out there, probably more high quality fakes than any other series. What do you all think? https://postimg.cc/gallery/ddywVbW
@C-B-D said all that needed to be said. You can see where the faux copper coating remains in the fields of the piece.
While I don't claim to be a Large cent expert, I've have always been of the opinion that Jefferson Head cents (while interesting) are very crude counterfeits that became "accepted" by powerful folks in the numismatic community long before I was born. This type of thing is still going on in my lifetime. I'm all for collecting fakes but let's identify them for what they are and still charge whatever price they bring. These are called samples made outside the mint. That's like all the other "samples" made outside the Mint.
I don't think they're FAKES so much as Trial Pieces by people trying to compete with or join the MINT. Private MINTs were common and any coinage produced was circulated because of a shortage of all coinage. Foreign coins were everywhere. They appear to have had some connection with the MINT because they had both old thick and new thin planchet stock. That said, fakes and electrotypes are always a concern, though this looks more like the latter.
Some think the Jefferson heads were patterns or demonstration pieces by Harper when he was trying to get the contract for producing cents for the government in 1795. There is evidence that pieces were made and shown to officials, and that later the dies for those pieces were recovered from Harper, but there is no definite evidence that the Jefferson Heads were the actual patterns.
I think you said it clearer than I did. I was thinking of a demonstration piece and calling it a pattern thinking of it as a private pattern rather than an official pattern. I like your term better since it's less confusing.
