I am no expert on this series (not that I am on any series) but especially on this series...just something looks off about this dollar http://cgi.ebay.com/1877-Trade-Doll...IndividualQQsalenotsupported#ebayphotohosting
Coin has been cleaned or polished, sometimes counterfeiter's will polish their cast counterfeits to make up for the pitted fields, making detection harder. Other than that, I'd say it's geniune. The denticals are a little off, and the reverse letters seem a little fatty, but it looks ok, just a problem coin. I may be wrong though, I don't specialize in trade dollars so I'm not 100% sure of what a geniune one should look like on a trade dollar. Generally, you can spot a fake with the fatty letters/devices and loss of detail, if you look at enough geniune specimens.
I was just wondering I know so little on trade dollars that I wouldn't even go buy one from my coin dealer let alone ebay...I was just wondering if it was just me, I didn't know what just something looked off
looks like it's been dipped, maybe? All I know about trade dollars is that you have to be extremely careful because there are more counterfeits out there than there are authentic pieces.
RUN AWAY!!! This Trade Dollar may be a fake. Notice the spike to the left of the 8 in the date and the raised lump above the second 'L' in DOLLAR on the reverse. The coin appears to have been polished (maybe by a counterfeiter to hide some of the defects). The obverse devices have definitely been tooled (maybe to strengthen the weak details that counterfeits often have). A raw Trade Dollar on eBay is enough reason alone to RUN!! RUN AWAY!!!
You , my friend, have a good eye! I didn't spot either of those things. Also looks to have a small circular depression below the star on K-11?
yeah wow, you are good! I just thought it looked funky but had no idea why, You knew it was funky and why!
Oh, I knew what to look for. I looked at many counterfeit gold coins at the seminiar I took. Mainly with those spikes, and toolmarks. I also knew that cast coins sometimes have lumps in the fields, but the main thing I am lacking was experience. I have not looked at hundreds of fake/authentic gold coins, so I don't pick it up as fast.
I have never taken a class, and have collected for about 3 years..but I look at ebay so even an unexperienced person like me can spot a few..image the practice you could get off EBAy
GoldCoinLover, When did you take the Counterfeit Detection course? I took it at ANA Summer Seminar 2006.
It was only one day that covered counterfeit detection and alterations. 8 hour day... It was Grading, Conservation and Authentication at the phoenx national money show in 2008. I had already studied counterfeit gold before, so I was already aware of the diagnoses. But the main thing was being able to see depressions up close, spikes and toolmarks on counterfeit gold, which I got to see alot of. I want to take the main course in counterfeit detection in colorado , at the ANA headquarters sometimes..but I live a LONG ways away from here, so I don't think it will be any time soon.
Late to the party, but FAKE! Terrible dentils, and the 'wear' on obv/rev does not match. Spike off 2nd L in DOLLAR, E in FINE is messed up, wrong star morphology. Usually the rims on fakes are too wide, but here they are too narrow for the most part.
Here is the obverse of a fake 1874-cc that I own. For the most part it looks ok, but the dentils at around 7-8 show extensive pitting, there is a raised bump to the left of the date, and the rims are too wide (they normally are about as wide as a dentil is long) especially on the right.
