how do you spot fake Trade Dollars, anyway?

another fake TD,on ebay, an 1876-S. see how many problems you can identify.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Looks porous and the denticles are screwed up. They're curved by fake liberty's foot for starters. The denticles on the reverse have the usual hallmark of a fake Trade Dollar. Especially at the 12 and 1 o'clock position. The word Trade Dollar looks weak. Then there's those odd looking bumps to the left of the eagles head.


To me, the overall look of it, looks odd. After looking at 1000's of pictures of Trade Dollars it just doesn't look real. It's one of those that I look at it for a sec, and hit the back button.


The denticles alone are bad enough for me to stop any further investigation when looking at a Trade Dollar to purchase.

 

Here's another 1876 Trade Dollar on the Bay for $1100. I made of offer of $5.00. Same hideous blue background. Probably came from the same fake coin maker.

 

I think your observations are spot on. also, if you enlarge the 3d image you can see that the edge reeding is very irregular.

 

That 76-s on the blue background looks more like a cookie than a coin!

 

and another one on ebay, newly listed. Look past the obvious scrubbing on the obv. and the incorrect reverse type.

 

For me, just looking at Liberty would prevent from investigating this coin. She just doesn't look right.

Looking at the coin the 1877 looks bad. The fonts are not right. The 8 almost looks like the maker of this fake took a chisel to manipulate the 8 in an attempt to make it look better. If you compare the 7's to the real deal, they're not even close.

Not a very convincing fake if you take a few minutes to compare it to a real coin.

Want to check out a den of fakes on Etsy? They're being sold as real. A lot of really bad Trade Dollars being sold by that thief.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/CoinCreed?ref=l2-about-shopname

 

That spot at 9:00 on the reverse -- corrosion around a hole in the plating?

 

Usually they don't go to the trouble to plate these I expect it is a contaminant in whatever cheap alloy they use for the planchets.

 

M.M., you are right, not a very convincing fake. And Etsy... OMG, better grab the 73-cc TD, ONLY ONE LEFT!

 

OK gang, what's wrong with the TD. 2 points for getting it right.
It's something that could make a big difference, if you're doing a TD type set, like me.

 

S mint mark on the coin but not on the slab?

 

You got it.

This why I tend to really look at a coin before I buy it. While it's not a fake coin. NGC made an error which could be costly.

All these little things make you keep on your toes

 

Nice strike for a 77 P mint! (wink)

 

The on-line cert was modified...

 

That's very interesting. When I looked at it a few days ago, NGC had the picture of the TD with the wrong labeled slab. I sent a message to the seller informing of the NGC error. It looks like the seller took care of it.

 

This is some of the best written information on the Trade Dollar I have seen.

Thank you much for sharing your knowledge and experiences.

I would like to share this link with Reddit; there is a fairly active coin collecting community. Would that be okay with you?

And for the moderator, is there an issue with referencing CT in a 'social media' web site? I have recommended CT in some of my Reddit posts, but have not tied together a thread yet.

Thank you again.

Good hunting...

 

It's ok with me to share a link to the thread; thanks for your comments & interest. I'm all for the "diffusion of knowledge."

 

Here is an interesting one, not a fake, but with some features that might concern people. An 1876 S, graded MS62 by ANACS, on eBAy. Note the look of the eagle's right wing and leg, which I have never seen this mushy; also note near the bottom the fine lines through the letters that are from the rollers of the drawing machine used to flatten out the metal strips prior to cutting out the planchets. Perfectly normal. Also a pronounced die crack, something not usually seen on fakes.
I am wondering if the weakness of the wing and leg are from grease in the dies, but I really don't know. comments welcome. The obv. looks perfectly normal so I haven't posted it.

 

Looking at it very closely, I see a double die appearance to it. On the reverse, where it says "OF AMERICA" is very obvious. I found the auction and the 1876 is even more obvious. On Liberty's right leg, it's also obvious.


Now, is that what the coin actually looks like, or is it just the photography? Sometimes people move ever so slightly taking a pic, which distorts things.


I was hoping for a picture on ANACS, but no such luck.