1889 Morgan dollar COPY

Without the obvious that it says copy what else about this coin says counterfeit. I don't see anything myself, the denticles look right,the date looks right it doesn't have cast marks and to me it looks like an average circulated Morgan. I was hoping maybe some pointers from a more experienced Morgan collector could tell me what I may have missed that screams fake so that if the next time it doesn't have copy on it I know what to look for.

 

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Good Point.

 

I'll stand by my opinion. It's not counterfeit. And yes, it's silver.

 

I wish I could help, but I actually don't see most of the counterfeit tells here that I'm used to looking for -- weakly-struck areas in odd places, weak denticles, misshapen letters and digits. I'm not the kind of collector who can match variety details to years, either.

But I just don't see any way that you can put a raised COPY onto a coin's field without it being present in the die. That COPY mark is not struck into the coin.

Have you checked its thickness?

 

Then how did someone put COPY in relief on the reverse, without distorting the surrounding field or the opposite face?

And, for bonus points, how do you check composition from a photo?