Counterfeit / Altered Coin Of The Day/Week

Coin of the day 7-25-08

1928 $2.5 gold Indian Quarter Eagle
This one should be a bit more obvious- The coin has a weakly "struck" appearance & a pocked look to it from it being a cast counterfeit.It was polished & the surface appearance looks more like that of an orange peel.

 

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Hobo, I heard the same thing from the book Numismatic Forgery.

 

When were they made

Bud thanks for the great examples , I was wondering if you know the date aproximatley , when each was made , even recent ,or when the originals were circulating .
rzage:smile:hatch::hammer:

 

I purchased the US Gold counterfeit detection guide by Bill Fivaz. There's a lot of good info in there. Here's a little excerpt from the beginning. Not all the info but a few important points out of it.

"Counterfeit rules of thumb:

Weak/Fatty, mushy letters & devices
Repeating depressions
Tool marks (commonly found at the back of the neck on $2.5 & $5 Indians)
Spikes
Sunken letters or numbers
Color
Edge- Irregular reeding on the edge or fat, rounded reeding. Most also have straight, fine lines in between reeding where the coin was pushed out of the die at the mint. Check the edge for test marks, which are a good indication that someone has questioned it's authenticity in the past.

Weight
Spinners- Some counterfeit Indian head $5 pieces may spin when placed on a flat surface, due to one side being cup shaped.

Mintmark- It is estimated that close to 90% of false Liberty Head gold coins are Philadelphia counterfeits (bearing no mintmark). But as shown by the OP here....don't let your guard down on MM'd coins.

Greasy luster
High-point luster- One of the most telling signs of a fake is a coin with wear that has complete luster on the high points. Many times counterfeiters will harshly clean the coins to obscure the surface, making detection difficult.

Uncertified coins
Bubbles


GENUINE COIN RULES OF THUMB:

Genuine die wear.
Microscopic detail
Circulation wear - If coin is in EF grade or lower, chances are in your favor that it is a genuine coin. This is not etched in stone but is a good rule of thumb.
Fine die polishing lines
Certified coins"

 

Another one to add to the "Genuine Coin Rules of Thumb":

If a gold con has a copper spot that is a good indication that it may be genuine.

 

I read somewhere that once gold coins with copper spots were preffered because they showed the coin was real , then later coins with copper spots were less desireable , maybe we should go back to the old ways , I kinda like copper spots .
rzage:smile:hatch::hammer:

 

Here's a short, interesting article on counterfeit CBH's Buyer beware!

Looks like there were plenty of people counterfeiting these around the time they were coming out into circulation. Isn't just the modern day scum.

http://www.coinresource.com/articles/capped_bust.htm

 

Here's a coin I ordered raw from amergold.com

It had a copper spot and I scratched it off with a razor blade (big mistake). I didn't know what it was at the time. It got sent into the old ANACS and came back UNC details NET AU55

 

Don't you know they have a place on Rikers island for people who remove copper spots from coins:whistle: I was told this by a wize old man who told me they also send people there for accidently scratching Barber coins , which I was guilty .:kewl::hail:
rzage

 

Ouch!!!

Live and learn.

 

Counterfeit of the day 7/29/08

Here is an 1801 draped bust dollar-

Besides the weight & sound of the coin being wrong there are some other issues that can be pointed out on this piece-

The coin is a cast counterfeit & has soft detail - there are many tiny casting bubbles on the obvers & reverse of this coin & with a 5X loupe are easy to spot.

Also the peason who made this die was not the best diesinker & there are multiple recuts & mistakes on the coin-

Overall a easy coin to identfy as a counterfeit when in hand-

 

Bud , what power magnification did you use to highlight the bottom section ?
rzage

 

My 9x Zeiss loupe - held up to the camera at 4.5 zoom-

 

Coin of the day 7/31/08

Here is a key date 1913-S Barber quarter- The coin had a mint mark added to it. I have provided some pictures - The last one will be after I just used my knife to push against the mint mark- With just a lite bit of force it chipped right off on the one side -

The coin was brought to my attention due to the rarity. My eye was drawn to how hight the mint mark sat on the coin comparitve to the rest of the devices wear- It was in the correct placement within tolerance but the shape was slightly off too-

 

Since they didn't go in from the edge and raise that area to produce the mint mark, do you have any idea how they attached the mint mark and what material they used for the mint mark?

Ribbit

 

Toad,

Embossed mintmarks are relatively new. I think it was ANACS that discovered the first embossed MM on a Buffalo Nickel around 20 years ago or so. Embossed MMs are used mainly on coins with smooth edges because it is easier to hide the damage to the edge on a smooth surface than on an edge with reeding.

The traditional way of adding mintmarks is to solder or glue the MM to the coin. The added MMs can be make of a variety of materials from the proper metal for the coin to lead. Some added MMs were cast in a mold and others were shaved off a genuine coin.

 

Great question- Its hard to say but it appears that this one was added with a touch of solder-
I also think this mint mark was taken off another coin.

I decided to remove the mint mark completely - Sorry its slightly fuzzy but it is darn hard to work with something that tiny- I have pictured the front & back of the mint mark & if you can make it out it does appear to have a tiny mark on the back side from the solder-

 

They usually use solder or something like super glue .
rzage

 

Like Bud said the MM are usually pretty brittle , somebody was casting MM by the thousands in Texas about ten years ago. A good way to tell an added MM is there will usually be at least a portion of the coin were the MM doesn't touch the actual coin , to see this you're gonna need a high resolution 300X microscope , or you could try what Bud did and push down on each side of the MM with a piece of wood and see if it breaks ,
rzage:smile:hatch::hammer:

 

Try this one out for size! Done during the Civil War to pass into circulation.