I went to the Aurora (Colorado) coin show today. (Aurora is part of Metro-Denver.) I arrived at the show around 11:30 AM and left around 4:30 PM (when dealers were shutting down). The show was similar in size to the previous two or three times I have attended - on the small side. Today there were around 25 dealers. There were not many buyers. (And with free admission and free parking I would have expected better attendance.) There were more buyers at mid-day than during the afternoon. I bought a coin from one dealer for $25 and he said that was 1/3 of his sales for the day. I will post pics later but I was able to expand my collection of counterfeit coins: VERY nice (and very deceiving) die-struck counterfeit 1894-S Morgan Dollar. This coin appears to have been struck in base metal (perhaps bronze) and plated with either silver or nickel. The plating has worn through on the devices making for an unnatural appearance (to the trained eye anyway). The fields are almost Proof-like and the details are good to very good although there are plenty of indicators that this is a fake (if you know what to look for). This is probably my best counterfeit Morgan Dollar so far. Two Counterfeit Trade Dollars - 1874-S and 1876-S. While the quality of these two fakes is only fair to good they are much better than the cheap Chinese counterfeits we are familiar with. The 1874-S has almost a Medal Turn - when you flip the coin normally the reverse is upside-down but rotated several degrees. Counterfeit 1928 Peace Dollar. This coin appears to be at least partially lead. The coin was plated at one time to make the coin appear to be silver but most of the plating is now gone leaving a dark, ugly coin. Most of the lettering - especially on the reverse - has been enhanced and has an unnatural appearance. A double-tails nickel. A rather poor attempt to make a "Magician's coin" where the two pieces did not quite fit together. The smaller piece sticks out above the rim of the hollowed-out coin. Still an interesting piece. Oh, and I also bought one genuine coin! A nice, attractive AU 1882 Shield Nickel.
Hobo - perhaps you could post some pics to go along with your comments, particularly the counterfeit coins. That would be very educational for those who are ignorant (me!) about how to determine whether real or fake.
OK. I have photos of the above coins and will post them in other threads. I will have a separate thread for each counterfeit coin so they can be discussed independently.
