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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;messydesk, post: 7944634, member: 1765&quot;]Yes.&nbsp; The New Orleans Mafia was established in the late 19th century.&nbsp; The size of the counterfeiting operation required a fairly significant investment, as coins were good silver, and disciplined logistical practices for undetected manufacturing and distribution.&nbsp; If they stopped because someone was caught, then there&#039;d be records of it in the Treasury Department archives.&nbsp; If they stopped because silver got too expensive for the operation to be worth the risk, we may never know.</p><p><br /></p><p>I picked 1905-1910 because silver was cheap then and people losing their jobs at the NO mint were available.&nbsp; The host coins were still high grade, so not very old.&nbsp; No 1921 Morgans or Peace dollars have been tied to this family of counterfeits.&nbsp; The Pittman Act would have provided cover for the disposal of a lot of these.</p><p><br /></p><p>If they were careful to make these look older than they were, using only older coins that they could find in good-enough condition, they could have been made in the early 1930s, when silver was very cheap and the profit margin would have been high.&nbsp; The boss at the time was &quot;Silver Dollar Sam&quot; Carollo. In 1934, he was instrumental in getting slot machines installed throughout Louisiana and was running a pretty big illegal gambling ring, which would have been a great way to move the coins into circulation.&nbsp; The low grade of most of these may indicate that they were intentionally worn down a bit to look old before being distributed, although much of that is actual circulation wear.</p><p><br /></p><p>Max Mehl&#039;s 1947 Will W. Neil Collection sale lists a &quot;1900 Microscopic O. Very good, but very rare. Only two or three specimens known,&quot; as lot 161.&nbsp; This is the earliest mention of this variety.&nbsp; An uncirculated specimen of a 1902-O VAM 3 supposedly traces to the collection of someone who died in WWII, but this hasn&#039;t been corroborated.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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