Hey gang! I'm pretty sure I already know the answer to this but I wanted to post this and get everyone's opinion on this piece before I report back to the owner. This was given to me to "figure out" by a friend of mine and I think it's some sort of trial for a counterfeit... but I have seen genuine US mint trial pieces struck in brass like this as well and the fact that it is a type I reverse is intriguing. any thoughts?
According to the newest patten book I have there really are only a couple known patterns/die trials for the buffalo nickel series... 2 were type I reverses and 1 was a type II. 2 struck in nickel and 1 in bronze. So there really isn't anything like this known to the pattern community... but I'm still leaning moch more towards some sort of counterfeit trial.
This is a cast counterfeit and a bad one at that....Interesting though...It's VERY easy to see that this piece was "cast" & not struck....
Well it definitely looks to have been cast and not struck. So you could well be right. But just out of curiosity what is the diameter and thickness ?
