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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Underhill, post: 7885253, member: 124097&quot;]Wow!&nbsp; Thank you all for so many quick replies!&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>SO... It seems as likely as any other explanation that perhaps my Grammie had a secret life as a skilled forger! (I think I love her even more now!).</p><p><br /></p><p>I know these coins have been buried in the junk in my dad&#039;s attic for at least 50 years that I know of, so a modern forgery seems unlikely.&nbsp; The &quot;tampered-with 1858&quot; theory seems like it&#039;s got to be the answer.&nbsp; Which leaves me wondering, as Lordmarkovan asked above... why?&nbsp; It doesn&#039;t look scratched off as a prank.&nbsp; To the naked eye it looks really good, even under the loupe it looks pretty good to me.&nbsp; So who would have enough skill to alter it fairly convincingly yet be such a dim-bulb that they&#039;d create something that not only isn&#039;t rare and valuable, but that never even existed?&nbsp; Seems like a waste of a perfectly nice coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>When seen in-person it does look like the copper must have been manipulated beyond just removing material.&nbsp; I can certainly see how erasing the left half of an eight would make it into a three but there seems to be much more &quot;meat&quot; on the three than there is on the number eight.&nbsp; Especially where the top and bottom curves join.&nbsp; That is to say at the &quot;waistline&quot; of the 8.&nbsp; The right-hand &quot;arms&quot; of the three, and the vertical line in the center of the three, where that 8&#039;s waistline would have been cut, is much wider than that same area is on the eight.&nbsp; Seems like material would have needed to be added there to get the 3 to be that shape. </p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s a good mystery...</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ll try to get a look (and hopefully a photo) with better magnification later today.&nbsp; Will update then.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thank you all again!</p><p>John[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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