hi, i was reading some of the post on this site when i searched google for fake coins. A friend who has a local store Northwest of Chicago. The Antique store that buys silver was closed and the person asked my friend if he wanted to by some old coins. (he has done this in the past with no problems). Yesterday he bought 8 silver dollars for $25 each, from the looks of it he might be out $199. the coins are 1879 trade dollar (no mint mark) 1845 seated dollar CC mint mark 1799 missing Liberty logo 1796 flowing hair 1882 dollar cc mint mark 1873 trade dollar 1906 ellis island dollar (should be 1986) 1923 peace dollar (unsure may be real) postage scale says about 20 grams a couple of these stood out as being strange to me at first glance, but after visiting you site and reading your forum i realized that there is more to learn, I will be back often. thank you for your time and knowledge Jim ps. the photos will be up shortly
I'm sorry to be the first to read your post & reply with the bad news. IMHO your friend purchased fake coins which are known to be manufactured in great quantities in mainland China & Thailand. If you have the time, please post photos of all & several members can point out what to look for in fake coins.
Agreed. All of what you listed are the "hot list" of fakes and the photos you posted are all poor quality fakes.
Hello, Thank you for your quick replies, Since these are fakes is there any recourse that can be bought against the person if he shows up again with more coins? Jim
coin photos, the coins were taken front , then back on my camera, I'm not sure how the forum loads them so they may be out of order when post on the site, Thanks again Jim
Nice Photos ! Let me share an experience of mine from a long time ago. Education & experience with counterfeit detection is key if you plan to buy raw coins. I recall being offered a 3-legged Buffalo nickel. I did not buy it because I did not know how to identify it as real and I knew that there were many fakes sold. I could have bought it at a great price but I passed on it. That evening, I studied & learned how to authenticate the 3-legger so that would never happen to me again. Yep, education & experience with counterfeit detection is key if you plan to buy raw coins. Your photos are great! You previously said that the coins didn't look right & that is the first step in detecting a fake. Your examples look like poor cast fakes. You can see casting bubbles & un-natural roughness on all the surfaces. The denticles are poorly formed. If you look at the reeded edges, you will probably see that they are not sharply reeded as a normal struck coin would be. Do your 1796 & 1799 dollars have a reeded edge? It is not supposed to be reeded..... The weight of cast fakes is almost always off. The diameter of the fakes may also be off. Those are two easy things to check. P.S. The China factories do not use silver when they make cast fakes. They use metal alloys which are worth nothing. If they were real coins, then you would be a very rich man this weekend.
These must be some old fakes.... the quality of the current crop of Chinese fakes is MUCH better than these.
Old or just poor quality. They are still churning out these poor quality ones, but also striking higher quality fakes.
I just purchased this coin off a raw coin dealer, and i was wondering if it looked like a counterfeir to anyone. If you get get backe to me I would really appreciate it.
Yes, that Isabella is a counterfeit. The lack of detail is a dead giveaway, as is the reeding. If you are in a position to so so, you should politely, but firmly demand a refund. And in the case of a counterfeit, legally, it makes no difference if a seller says "all sales final", etc.
If the seller can be located, the buyer should demand a refund. And if he couldn't tell those items were counterfeits, he shouldn't be buying coins.
Good luck on getting reimbursed ! I know an honest dealer would take the coins back, but those crooks who sell these as real may be pretty slippery ? Again, good luck with it ! gary
Sometimes (even if not often), sellers of such coins are not aweare that they are selling counterfeits. Edited for spelling.
Very true. But at the same time, the odds that someone sells you a bunch of coins, all at once, and they all end up being counterfeits? Sounds like a novice coin collector got taken, and decided to try to pawn off his losses on another unfortunate. I'm sure he knew they were counterfeits when he sold them for only 25 bucks apiece.