I found an old TAMS Journal that had a short listing of known counterfeit CWT and Merchant tokens. I saved the info and now cannot find it. No matter... More importantly for all of us: Does anyone have a list or better yet photos of counterfeit CWT's they would care to post?
I've heard of counterfeit CWTs but how do you know if they are counterfeit? Weren't they privatly made anyways? Don't take this as me being rude or anything. I really am curious cause I like contemporary counterfeit coins and am just wondering how you can tell. I have one token somewhere i can post later
The info you are looking for is available from the Civil War Token Society here: http://cwtsociety.com/news/alerts.shtml Known fakes (attributions are as close as possible, these are fakes after all): Patriotics: Liberty head (5)/God Protect the Union (288) Army and Navy/ The Federal Union (won't hazard a guess at attributing) George Washington (108)/Our Union (201) Our Country (232?)/Crossed Cannons (352?) Capitol (233)/Army & Navy (312) Liberty (236)/Union (426) Horrors of War (256)/Union For Ever (433) Storecards: ME-100A-2a (Torrey, Bangor) MI-225K-3a (Broeg & Gerber, Detroit) MI-225M-3a (Busch, Detroit) MI-225AFa-7a (Gies, Detroit) MI-225AM-2a (Hilterscheid, Detroit) MI-225CC-3a (Sutherland, Detroit) MI-450G-2a (Gleason, Hillsdale) MI-525C-7a (Jackson, Jackson) NJ-885A-2b (Titus, Trenton) Membership is a bargain due to the great discounts on books. Visit cwts.com. Come join us.
Well not a CWT or merchant token but here's a counterfeit military trade token: There is a seam around the edge and a filing mark from where it was broken from the sprue. The unevenness around the rim is not an artifact from photo-editing but how it actually looks. It has visible pits in the fields and devices that are not from corrosion. There are other issues with this token that raise red flags with me but the only reason they do is because of my experience with these types of tokens. In hand it doesn't feel right like too light, the size is off, the texture or maybe fabric of the token is wrong. The fact that it has no toning or discoloration is another issue. I'm not sure I've ever seen a token from the Vietnam War era that doesn't exhibit some corrosion or discoloration. Oh, and I consider the letters as being poorly formed with "mushiness." There is also a strange crosshatch formation that goes over the entire surface of both the obverse and reverse. It's difficult to see in my picture but ever token the seller had from Bien Hoa exhibited this effect and I believe it is an artificat from the manufacturing process but I don't know what caused it. Notice that this token is unlisted in Cunningham however my collection is littered with tokens that were unlisted. Now Bien Hoa issued tokens similar to this one but they were struck in aluminum and did not include this denomination. That said, there are examples of genuine tokens that are unlisted in both type of metal and denomination except they don't exhibit the same issues. I collected over 300 tokens before getting my first fake. I always figured my collecting niche was safe as the overwhelming majority of tokens are sold for $10 or less. Well I was wrong. The same seller has sold and continues to sell tokens from this base. All of them are fakes.
If a merchant has a token made for his use in the 1860's that is considered a privately made contemporary struck CWT. Some of the dies for these may have been used to make additional tokens at a later date but probably not in recent times.. Due to minting methods, die making, smelting, etc as was done over a century ago, contemporary strikes have a certain appearance. The majority of these tokens were virtually worthless in the 1960's and there were many fewer collectors. Unc's could be had all day for just a few dollars. They were not a popular coin type to fake and until perhaps a decade or two before now, I never heard of any counterfeits (remember I did not collect them so there probably were some fakes and fantasy pieces around). More modern copies are not genuine. The ones I have seen prove this to me - they don't look right. CWT collectors have studied these coins for decades and they are a very popular collectible now. So there is more reason for fakes (Chinese) to appear. As I wrote, the Token and Medal Society members have "outed" many fakes. I wish to see some.
Ok so you're talking about modern reproductions to fool collectors today? And not counterfeits made at the same time the tokens were being made? I misunderstood your first post I guess.
