Counterfeit or Geunine US Philippines Peso

[gmarguli]

I'm looking for opinions on whether this coin is genuine or counterfeit. It's a 1906-S US Philippines Peso and it is a very rare key date. The coin has been cleaned and retoned and there are some scratches.... but is it genuine?

 

 

If you want a MUCH larger picture, it is at: PESO

[MarkFeld]

I don't handle those, but my guess would be that it's genuine. Greg, if you suspect or know that it's counterfeit, what are the markers?

[gmarguli]

I don't know if it is real or not and I don't know the markers. It's not mine. A customer gave it to me to submit to PCGS and they bagged it as Questionable Authenticity.

 

I know they used two dies for this date and the date and mint mark seem to match pictures of a known genuine example.

 

I think this coin is genuine, but I'm wondering if I missed something or what PCGS saw that I didn't.

[bsshog40]

It wouldn't surprise me as only about 100 of these seem to have escaped into circulation. It wouldn't surprise me that PCGS has probably never seen one and wouldn't know what an authentic one looked like.

[James_OldeTowne]

Judging by typical technical characteristics, such as consistency of the dentilation and accuracy of the lettering, I would have concluded that this is a genuine coin. BUT, the images are rather out of focus. Also, check the reeding on this coin and see if it conforms to the characteristics of a genuine coin. Using the collar as a source of striking diagnostics is often overlooked.

 

I'm assuming you already checked the weight, since there's not enough wear on this coin to throw that measure off by much.

[Coindude]

I really think it's genuine. I'm with the Boss on this one. I think because it's sooooo rare, PCGS didn't want to hang themselves on this one and it's easy to hide behind the QA tag. I'd give it a shot at NGC and then ANACS.

[physics-fan3.14]

Just going on the look of it, it looks genuine. I don't know the diagnostics, but I'd say you've got a pretty good chance of it being real.

[WoodenJefferson]

Stacks had a PCGS MS-62 for sale

 

On the extremely large images, look at her right hand holding the hammer. If this is a casting flaw or a planchet flaw it might alert a grading service as to it being authentic.

[gmarguli]

I think because it's sooooo rare, PCGS didn't want to hang themselves on this one and it's easy to hide behind the QA tag.

 

PCGS gives coins the No Decision/Refund tag when they can't confirm that a coin is real. They gave that tag 3 other coins on the invoice (which another submitter thought they were crazy to do). Had they done the ND/R tag on this one I'd have thought the same thing, but they outright labeled this one a fake.

[gmarguli]

Judging by typical technical characteristics, such as consistency of the dentilation and accuracy of the lettering, I would have concluded that this is a genuine coin. BUT, the images are rather out of focus. Also, check the reeding on this coin and see if it conforms to the characteristics of a genuine coin. Using the collar as a source of striking diagnostics is often overlooked.

 

I'm assuming you already checked the weight, since there's not enough wear on this coin to throw that measure off by much.

 

Weight comes in at somewhere between 26.5 and 27 grams. A real example is 26.9568 grams.

 

Reeding looks fine.