Apparently some of the counterfeit Trade Dollars are being sold abroad.

[DonHeath]

I was bored, so I was looking at U.S. coins for sale on Ebay's U.K. site when I stumbled across this beauty. Although the bidding indicates this one isn't fooling anyone, it made me wonder if many of the counterfeits are sold as darkside coins outside their country of origin?

[jtryka]

Interesting. I know for a fact that there are counterfeit US gold coins being sold outside the US, but I thought they might be limited due to the bullion values.

[Bruceswar]

Whats the dead givaway here? is it the size of the coin? book has it listed at 38.1MM but I do not know the conversion into inches... But it seems that it would be off? or am I missing something esle... Bids are over 50 bucks US right now for a coin that even if graded EF 40 would bring $145.00 and with the small and hard to see pictures, I think that the bidding is stay down... If it came out in F 12.. it would only be worth $95.00... and with alittle more than 6 hours left... I would think the bidding would go higher

[DonHeath]

At first glance, the irregular rims bother me, and the absence of dentils on the lower reverse. I'm not a Trade Dollar expert, but that's a frequently counterfeited coin, and that one just looks to my untrained eye like a bad counterfeit. Perhaps one of the experts can comment. The diameter is correct.

[Bruceswar]

you would think though that if they were going to counterfiet one they would have picked a better date to do it with....

[TomB]

you would think though that if they were going to counterfiet one they would have picked a better date to do it with....

 

Ahhh...but sometimes that's the point! One of the best counterfeits out there is the Bay Area large cent. It's an 1853 large cent produced as a high end BN coin. The 1853 large cent is one of the most common dates for the series and this includes as an MS piece. Few people bother to authenticate such a common coin, thus, many of them are bought and sold as originals. I have first-hand experience in this issue, as I bought one.

 

By the way, the image of the TD is just so poor that I cannot tell anything about it.

[Bruceswar]

It is really hard to tell from the pic.. I would like to see the coin in person....

[DonHeath]

Bruce,

 

Of course you're right about having the coin in hand before rushing to judgement, and were the seller's auction likely to be affected by my post, I'd have asked for better pictures. Having said that, I did want to comment on TomB's post. Here is a link to a recent Coinworld article by Paul Gilkes that discusses the counterfeits seen at the recent Hong Kong show. You'll note the coin pictured is a 75-S. He indicates in his article that only 30% of the fakes were CC mint, with the majority being Philly and San Fransisco mint coins. They graded in the EF-AU range, and were die struck. Apparently they are silver, of the correct weight, and diameter. It seems the good counterfeiters seek coins not likely to attract much scrutiny.

 

[Bruceswar]

that is a very nice article... Thx for posting it....

[Elcontador]

I think the 75S is the most commonly counterfeited Trade $. When I was in Vietnam, I picked up an 1875 CC. Based on wear, it would have graded XF 40, but it had far too many scratches for this condition.

 

The diameter & weight appeared to be right. Nothing other than that appeared to be wrong with the coin. Weight, diameter, etc. looked about right. They probably found a real one & made copies of it. I brought it to Long Beach & it fooled half of the dealers who saw it.

 

A Trade $ person asked if he could take it out of the case & bounce it on a table. Since it had so many scratches on it already, I told him to go ahead. It didn't have the right 'ring' to it. He explained that it didn't have the right 'ring' to it because the metal composition -- although it was silver based -- was different than that of the original Trade $.

 

Tom B could probably comment more intelligently on this than I can. This was the best fake I've seen.