Coin Doctoring at it's worst.

I recently bought this coin raw at a show like I do with many other early dollars. I am usually very good in detecting any problems with them. This one got past me and looking at this coin still don't see it jumping out at me. The thing that makes this coin so scary is just how good it looks. This coin was either holed or had damage to the point where someone used other metal to plug the damaged spot. The thing is that the plugging process will significantly alter the coins look. This after it was fixed was then doctored to look honestly really good. It's possible that it's right in the center of the obverse.

I'm wondering if the grading companies aren't using something like a blacklight to see things on these coins. Even after comparing this coin to pictures of coins from the same die pair I see little difference.

 

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where was it plugged? do you know?

 

Its real and plugged why not the Gold holder??
hex the mint back then plugged a lot of coins.

 

That is scarey. I think.... I see the spot on the throat and then on the reverse it looks to be in the crossbars about 2/3 of the way over to the right.

 

I can't see it. If it is plugged, it must have also been tooled. Could it have been a plugged planchet that was stuck?

 

Doug,

I think you are right. I am so used to seeing the holes around the edge that I must have concentrated there too much. The pictures I took make it much more apparent then it is in hand. You still got good eyes ole man!

 

Dang, too bad!

 

I am feeling scared that my collection has counterfeits and doctored coins!!

 

Beg your pardon Doug but I don't think that's the plug. The ear is not in the center of the obv. but the surface disruption you circled on the rev. is.

I think the plug may be in the E of LIBERTY; just a guess.

 

I guarantee Doug has one of them wrong because his obverse does not line up with the reverse - both are in the upper half!? I think his reverse is correct and this is the obverse (green). BTW, I specifically lined mine up with the reverse.

 

Plugged or not, that's still a beautiful coin. How much do you think the plug knocks off of the value?

 

After correcting the cropping of the images, I've placed crosshairs over the obverse and reverse to find their centers. I've inverted and flipped the reverse so that the obverse can be superimposed over it. The area marked in green on the obverse is very near the center and does not line up with the area marked in red on the reverse, which is farther from the center.





On the other hand, compare the E in LIBERTY on the obverse of this coin to an E taken from an undisturbed 1808 dollar:



The bottom "bar" of the E should be noticeably longer than the top bar, as seen in this photo. This typeface is designed this way. In the E on the dollar in question, the bottom bar is the same length as the top bar, which is incorrect.

You can also look at the E's in UNITED STATES on the reverse of this coin to see the extended bottom bar on each of them.

 

That's kind of scary.

 

There is no way I would have ever thought it was plugged. Infact I still dont see it! It is a real nice coin though, sorry its plugged "somewhere". Did you try a blacklight?

 

LD , Have you looked at it , with a high power microscope . Still a beautiful coin . Could you call NGC and ask how they found the plug and ask where it's at ?
Rusty

 

There are other spectrums of light other than visible. There are X Rays, UV (ultraviolet), infrared, etc. What may not be visible to us in the visible light spectrum may be plain as day in another spectrum. Perhaps NGC viewed the coin in one of these other spectrums of light.

 

Only us collectors want a handyman's repair to be evident. When I was renovating apartments no one cursed my deceptive practices!