Whopper Kennedy Errors! I mean, Day-um!

Just to make sure I'm following here, you're talking about damage to the minting equipment, not reputational damage or anything like that, right?

 

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***UPDATE***

None of the the JFK errors I posted are genuine. They are on loan for me to photograph and study only and under special and strict circumstances. So please, do not politely or aggressively accuse me of "promoting" or "marketing" pieces such as these, or think you will see these particularly pieces for sale anywhere in the future; you won't. There is value in studying fakes and altered coins, and I encourage all of you to do the same for the betterment of all collectors.

Anyway, in doing research on my Mint error book, I decided to do a small section on counterfeit and altered errors and list some ways I can teach the reader how to know the difference and what to look for.

Most fake/altered coins are very easy to identify, some are a little more challenging, and then there are these ones I posted.

These are all believed to be created at a foreign mint, presumably in Eastern Europe, where an individual(s) likely had unique access to professional minting equipment,. (From my background in law enforcement at the federal level, it would not surprise me if criminal enterprises were secretly collaborating with corrupt gov't officials - or at least low-level government workers - at government minting operations to produce, market, and sell these coins as a means of generating a lucrative, highly-profitable business. However, that is merely speculation on my part and I have no way of proving it. I do, however, have some experience in knowing and dealing with Asian and Eastern European criminal operations, which includes counterfeiting U.S. currency and U.S. company products, so my assumption is not just a wild guess either.)

One person in particular who was selling or attempting to sell these coins and other desirable errors (state quarters on cent planchets, Ike dollars struck on 1 cent curved clips, Susan B. Anthony wrong planchet errors, etc.) was a man supposedly named "Charles Silverstone" a.k.a. "Mike McCoy" among other names. Apparently at one point he had an address listed on eBay in Bulgaria, and also had contact information in Western Florida in the St. Pete/Clearwater area with at least two different addresses. (People I interviewed also said he had a thick European accent after talking with him on the phone.)

Unfortunately a handful of his fakes were at first slabbed by all four major grading companies, in part because the modus operandi was to use genuine U.S. planchets in making these deceptive coins, and even using some genuine errors that were later enhanced via additional strikes from extremely well-crafted fake dies; this strategy adds to the level of difficulty in verifying genuine coins.

One of the people who discovered these were not genuine was Mint error dealer Jon Sullivan, which among other factors noticed one die with unique die markings was found to be on different denominations over different years...and from different U.S. Mints! So, either the various Mints passed this particular die around to each other over several years, or it was an altered/fake die all made at one place.

Though some of you may feel this is "proof" that grading companies are unreliable, I find just the opposite is true. I admire their role in being aggressive to correct their mistakes, and I don't feel it was just all about mitigating damage/lawsuits or to deflect negative publicity; I believe they had the individual collector in mind as well and didn't want anyone else getting scammed.

As you can see, these fakes/altered coins are incredibly convincing, though some more than others. I don't know what or if anything ever happened to "Charles Silverstone," or whomever he really is.

~Joe C.

 

Thanks for the updated information.

 

Not Chinese junk but Eastern European junk. I knew it!

Reed.

 

nice work !

 

For Clarification - the Kennedy errors are from
the Southern Calif. area, circa 1969.

Only the newer modern pcs. are "Silverstone" counterfeits.

 

Thanks for your very informative post, Joe.

 

I think they are all fake

 

Here is one a friend of mine owns. Still in a legit NGC slab. He wants to leave it in there for educational purposes. I think I would do the same thing probably

 

Ahhh. For some reason I thought Kennedy halves were considered modern coinage

 

Yes very convincing. The only one that stood out as fake to me was the nickel.

 

Yes, damage to press, dies, collars, etc. If we had sold the pieces from customer's dies, that would have hurt our reputation.
But the errors like those seen (except with the nickel on half) all can occur through the minting process. But they would have been culled out and not ended up in a bag.

 

As to the coin strikes on nails, a fellow Authenticator at ANACS got a VIP tour of the Denver Mint back in the late 1970's and he saw a nail sitting on a coin press and he asked the press operator "WHat's that for?" The press operator showed him the feeding tube which had a long slot down one side and said "Sometimes the blanks get stuck in here and I use the nail to free them."

So, one strike on a nail was plausible, but multiple strikes on multiple nails must have had help, and now the CHinese are counterfeiting them.

 

i can't remember ever seeing fake ones for sale. I am sure they have. I just don't remember coming across them for error coins I want to buy

 

Joe, I meant 'modern' in the sense of
the last 20 years or so.

I'm too old to consider 1964 a 'modern era',
even for coins !

 

Yes they have made them and sold them

 

I managed to find a guy in California from another blog who had one (Not Fred W.) but he only had one; he sold it to me knowing I would not sell it or con others into thinking it is authentic. Here it is below; pretty sure it was made by the same individual(s) who made the ones I showed from Fred's collection at the start of the thread.

@Fred Weinberg do you surmise these are likely from that same lot? The guy who sold it to me is from Southern Cal.

 

My 2 examples.

On a side note, I was just contemplating posting a thread discussing the frequency of this type of error on Washington's.

 

Please start your own thread. Yours is off-topic on this one and few people will see it. A new thread will draw more attention. ~Joe C.

 

Charley.. What you did is called hijacking a thread. As stated. Always start a new thread of you want to show anything that os not related to the original topic.