Need to know if these coins are real or not

A friend of mine had a bag of coins he got from a relative and was generous enough to let me look through it. I picked out an 1855 large cent, an 1889 Morgan dollar, a 1974 Ike dollar (oddly enough I don't have a single one that's not a bicentennial), and a 1971S proof Ike. The cent is in pretty good condition, so I'm wondering if it may be a fake, and he had two other morgans that I'm pretty sure were fake so I need to know if the one I picked out is fake. If they are real then I need to know a fair value to give him for the coins. Ill start off with pictures of the large cent.
http://s737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/piratej21/

 

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They look ok to me , what makes you think they might be counterfiet ?
rzage

 

Looks real, impossible to tell from those pics though.

 

Yeah, picks arent the best in the world, but my scanner refuses to cooperate with me. And my camera isn't very good at taking pictures of small things close up. The only reason that makes me think the large cent may be fake is because of its relatively good condition compared to all the other older coins in the bag. I mean, there were seated dimes, a half cent, a silver three cent piece, mercury dimes, and a two cent piece, but all were in horrible condition. I guess I find it a bit suspicious that this large cent escaped the same fate as the other coins. However there is pvc build up on it, so it may have been in a flip where the other coins weren't? I don't know, I'm just one of those people who are naturally suspicious of things. I'm going to try to sneak out of work on sunday and take them to my coin dealer and see what he thinks also. Anyway, here are the best pics I could get of the Morgan.
http://s737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/piratej21/Morgan/

 

Also on the large cent, the first 5 is a bit weak on the top.

 

I'm naturally suspicious too but it doesn't look bad to me. There's nothing obvious anyway. The numbers appear to be in the correct format. It looks like the 1855, upright 5's variety. There were only 1.57 million 1855s. It's possible a collector in the late 1800s could have pulled it from circulation and stashed it away. I'd say it's very likely that this one is real. There doesn't need to be any correlation between a bunch of coins stored in a bag. Who knows how they all got there and when?

BTW, the condition of it I'd say is very typical of them. It's not spectacular condition. Just an average grade.

 

you are joking right?
who the hell would fake a $20 Morgan?

 

The Large cent looks OK to me the weakness at the top of the 5 is not unusual. The pictures are not good enough to determine die variety. The reason the large cent is in such good condition compared to the other coins is because just two years after it was made the large cents were discontinued. While the large cents COULD continue to circulate, being an obsolete and discontinued coin they were much more likely to be kept rather than spent. Then by 1862 all coinage disappeared during the Civil War and much of them didn't return to circulation until the mid 1870's by which time a large cent in circulation would have been rather unusual. So basically it probably only circulated for a few years before it disappeared into a hoard.

And Doug is right about the counterfeiters, they probably make as much money faking the common coins than they do on the key dates. People really look at the keys and the fakes are spotted quickly because the diagnostics of the genuine pieces are well known. The commons are not looked at close and in many cases all the varieties are not well known or even cared about so the fakes are much easier to pass. I have seen fake common Morgans.

 

I want to thank everyone for their responses. Unfortunately I cant get any better pictures. My scanner is still on strike, apparently it wants paid holidays or something:goofer:. Everyone here says that the coins are real, so now I just need to come up with a fair price to pay my friend. I'm bummed out because the only coin dealer near me is only open on sundays and I don't think I can sneak out of work to show them to him. I may call him up to see if he will stop in the park I work at to look at them on his way to his shop. His shop also closes at 5, the same time my park closes.

Also, in the dansco 7070, is there two slots for the straight and slanted 55's, or is there just one slot for this large cent?

 

There is only one opening in the 7070 for the 1840 to 1857 large cents.

 

Numismedia seems well respected. The link is for "fair market value" prices, aka retail.

 

pirate, you might want to figure out if your camera has a "macro" setting, which is specifically designed to enable you to take close-ups of small objects. Most digital cameras do have such a setting, and on many, the setting is indicated by a "flower" on the selector dial.

 

This Ebay seller just sold several counterfeit Morgan dollars, which, as best I can tell, weren't even silver. Unfortunately,most of the buyers were so unknowledgeable that they didn't realize it and left positive feedback. Most of them have been recently notified, however.

There are countless counterfeit low value Morgan Dollars and other coins out there.

Edited to add link: http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...erid=stephb0612&ftab=AllFeedback&myworld=true

 

Those pics were taken with my macro setting .

 

Does the magnet test work for counterfeits or maybe counterfeits are made from something non magnetic

 

not sure if these coins are real

 

Which book are these pics from? It should give you the information as to the authenticity of the coins.

 

Never mind.....found it:

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Money.htm

 

Gotta think outside the box, like a criminal would. It's like the paper notes, most counterfeit the 50 and 100 notes, if I was a greedy criminal, I'd make fakes of $1 or $5 bills, I've never had a cashier look those over closely to verify if it's fake or not.