As a new member, I was pleasantly surprised to see the posts on counterfeit coins and thought I'd add mine. The friend who sent it to me told me it was a fake, but didn't tell me what to look for when it arrived. At first glance, it looked pretty much like an old silver dollar and I probably could have been fooled into buying it as real. Knowing it was a fake, though made me look at it more closely. The first thing I noticed was the images weren't oriented so they were upright when flipped top to bottom. Not being familiar with old coins, I called the mint to see if any coins were ever minted like this. It took a while to find somebody could answer this question, but they said as far as they knew, coins have always been oriented so a vertical flip would keep the images upright. The thing that really gave it away, though, was how fast it jumped out of my hand and attached itself to a magnet. I normally don't buy old coins, but if I do, I'll have to remember to take a magnet with me. If anyone here is familiar with this dollar, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Thanks, Rick
The denticles are all wrong - not connected to the rim. And take a look at the HUGE tool mark on the obverse between stars 12 & 13. Can you take more photos that are taken straight on rather than at an angle?
Thanks, Hobo, the denticle location, and or size, are things beyond my knowledge and I never noticed the tool mark until you mentioned it. I guess that's why I don't do any old coin shopping, it would be too easy for me to make an expensive mistake. Another reason I'm glad to have found the Coin Talk forums. To get any better pictures with my camera I'll have to go outside when the sun's shining, otherwise, all the detail is blocked by the flash.
I don't think that's a tool mark, it's a die crack. It shows heavy between stars 12 & 13, becomes weaker as it approaches the center of the die then continues on the other side becoming clear again where it runs through star 2.
