how do you spot fake Trade Dollars, anyway?

Many thanks again! Guy selling the 75 CC came up with excuses to not give me better pictures.

Some details seemed bad to me but I appreciate the help here.

Thanks a lot! Probably not the last time I am asking.

 

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pa

page is missing??

 

That's because the post is from 2009.

 

I enlarged the images of the 75cc, and on the rev see what appear to be some raised metal blobs under the eagle's "chin," on the first 0 of 900, and on the U of United. these add to my suspicions. That the seller is reluctant to provide better quality images is a red flag for me.

 

Many thanks again!

I have a rather specific or odd question:

I read that there were different designs for Trade Dollars and that before 1873 the regular dollar weight was 26.73 grams (and Peace and Morgan Dollars still were) and that the Trade Dollars are 27.22 grams.

I was trying to find the weight for one of the designs (please correct me if I am wrong and these were also legal currency).

1873 T$1 Trade Dollar, Judd-1281, Pollock-1423

I couldn't find any weight for these. I know they say 420 grains but as these were kind of designs, could they also still have the 'old weight' of 26.73 grams?

Happy for any input. Thanks in advance!

 

I found this a really interesting post- hadn't seen it until it was just "revived"!

@ksparrow do you have an image of the reverse of the fake ANACS slab? Just checking the cert, they did not take it out of their system:

 

Behold, a fine example of a shady Trade Dollar on the Bay.

 

Jack,sorry Idon't seem to have retained images of the fake ANACS slab. I think I uploaded them to photobucket and dropped the account when they started charging. I'll keep looking though. Still have the fake coin, though!
Update: was able to retrieve images of the slab from my moribund PB account and save them to ext HD.

 

yeah, that looks like a proof alright.

 

OK here is the fake 77cc in all its glory, before I sent it back to ANACS. They kept the holder and returned the "coin."

 

Thanks @ksparrow! The images are helpful. I am looking into a suspect NGC example from around the same time frame to see if they match.

 

Glad to help, Jack! Large images of the coin are on page one of this thread, as "exhibit B." Good luck with your sleuthing.

 

The stem of the branch on the '73 CC appears to enter Miss Liberty's wrist.

 

Seller pulled the auction. Good news.


But anyway. That coin is a good example to study. The dentils, disappear and look faded throughout the whole coin. The 1882 almost looks hand carved. The fonts of the numbers are wrong.


The 1882 TD was a proof year only. Other than being an obvious fake, the wear alone should be a red flag.


If the picture, like this "Trade Dollar" is incredibly poor, best bet is to avoid it and don't look back.

 

An obvious fake, and the other points you highlight are things everyone should look for to identify fakes.

Not all those proof-only coins got treated with the respect they deserved, though.

 

There's always an exception to the rule like this coin you posted. Must have made a pretty piece of jewelry many years ago.

This thread, though, is a very important one for learning how to identify fakes. Good fakes and poor fakes alike. I've learned so much just from this thread.

This thread saved me a lot of potential grief in my Trade Dollar journey.

 

A couple of years ago, I thought I had spotted a rare 1875-s "micro s"
(raw) on a west coast seller's site. The photos while not large looked ok. Once I received the coin, on close inspection it showed a number of fake "tells."
photos in 2x2: doesn't look too bad.

here are a couple of closeups: note the tiny metal "beads" attached to some of the letters on the obv, and the mushy dentils and letters on the rev.You can also see some "holes" in some rev. letters and numbers. Bottom line, a decent fake can fool you with standard size images, and sometimes you have to really drill down to the details to determine authenticity. There was also some red paint or something in a couple of spots, which was unusual and made me more suspicious, although not in itself a sign of a forgery.

 

Yeah those denticles are bad on the 75 s. More sophisticated fake but wrong. That 82 is horrible. I’ve seen quite a few impaired circulated proofs as Jeff said. Trade dollars got no respect for years.

 

Here’s a legit 75-cc and 82-s.

 

Nice coins for comparison; thanks for posting them.