We were looking on ebay and this coin has some unusual "Q" in the word "quarter" on the back could it be fake? http://cgi.ebay.com/1917-STANDING-L...em&pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item2a07c523bc
nah, it could be a strike thru at that point, or possibly post mint damage. The chinese are better at fakes than that.
eBay is no place for a newbie to learn to distinguish fakes from genuine coins. Your best bet is to learn to authenticate and grade coins in hand by going to coin shops and coin shows. The more coins you see (in hand) the better you will get to be at knowing what a genuine coin looks like. A little education is always good too. ANA offers excellent correspondence courses on coin grading and counterfeit detection. If you can go to Colorado Springs you should consider attending an ANA Summer Seminar where you can take these and other courses; there you will have the opportunity to see hundreds and hundreds of examples of coins and really hone your skills. Good luck.
they often screw up the weight on there copies.. ribbing and material composite.. best thing to do doont buy raw coins from ebay..
Since the mark in question doesn't appear to be raised, it could very well be a small strikethrough. I don't like the look of the "texture" in the fields. It looks a little too uneven. I would think that a coin like this would be in an NGC or PCGS slab if it was authentic and problem-free. Chris
I was thinking the same thing might be wizzed it is very clean coin to be that old. I like the line of .99 start reserve at my cost and then it's a BIN
The seller has 2 full pages of "raw" coins, that alone does not make the SLQ any better off, but I think the indirect lighting is giving the surface area look more of a matte finish than anything else. That is an unusual mark stuck in there along the rim and the tail of the Q...hard to say who, when & where on that, but it is somewhat distracting for a $300 coin. Yet another crap shoot e-bay seller.
Good advice would be to educate yourself on the matter, like Hobo has stated. Also, stick to buying graded coins by PCGS or NGC before you start getting better at counterfeit detection. Here are some books that may help; http://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/products/counterfeit-coin-detection/ I hear Numismatic Forgery is pretty good.
There is nothing that tells me this coin is a fake... I have never seen the definition of the horizontal pedestal lines in a counterfeit that this coin exhibits. In my opinion, the coin is genuine. Would I buy it? No. There is not enough history on this seller and the coin appears to be cleaned or whizzed.
interesting. anyone have a few standing & washington quarters that have been whizzed and otherwise would be a high grade - to sell me at melt? I'd like to inspect them so I have more knowledge in buying. There aren't any real coin shops for hundreds of miles.
