Contemporary Counterfeit 1823 Capped Bust 50C...

[coinman1794]

I just found this rare, contemporary counterfeit Capped Bust half dollar over the weekend!

 

Does anyone have a copy of Davignon's Contemporary Counterfeit Bust Half Dollars to look up the variety?

 

 

 

[coinman1794]

Anyone?

[coinman1794]

There have been discussions of these coins on the boards in the past. Are any of those people still here?

[mkman123]

do you happen to know if its made of silver or ?

[coinman1794]

These "Contemporary Counterfeits were created in the 1830s and/or 1840s to use in circulation, not to fool collectors. Typically, they are a debased silver alloy (probably something like copper, tin, and silver); if they had been made from silver, there would not have been any money to be made in the exchange.

 

These are highly collectible and I'm surprised there have been almost no reponses!

[toyman-migration]

I've never seen one till now.

[coinman1794]

Here is an interesting article:

 

http://www.coinworld.com/articles/counterfeit-bust-halves/

[James_OldeTowne]

I just found this rare, contemporary counterfeit Capped Bust half dollar over the weekend!

 

Does anyone have a copy of Davignon's Contemporary Counterfeit Bust Half Dollars to look up the variety?

Please be careful of your use of such numismatic terms as "rare" . If it hasn't been attributed yet, then there is no formal indication of rarity.

 

It is a Davignon 1-A, and as it turns out, it's one of the most common CCs of all. I probably own about four of them or so.

 

The graffiti impacts the value significantly, but I have been able to buy these for about $20 to $30. Without the damage, it could be worth more like $60.

 

 

[TomB]

I have a copy of Davignon's work, but was offline due to Hurricane Sandy. However, it appears that James has given you wonderful information. Personally, I think the piece is wonderful.

[coinman1794]

I just found this rare, contemporary counterfeit Capped Bust half dollar over the weekend!

 

Does anyone have a copy of Davignon's Contemporary Counterfeit Bust Half Dollars to look up the variety?

Please be careful of your use of such numismatic terms as "rare" . If it hasn't been attributed yet, then there is no formal indication of rarity.

 

It is a Davignon 1-A, and as it turns out, it's one of the most common CCs of all. I probably own about four of them or so.

 

The graffiti impacts the value significantly, but I have been able to buy these for about $20 to $30. Without the damage, it could be worth more like $60.

 

 

Thanks for the attribution, James!

 

I was just using the terminology and stats of the author. According to the article I posted above, Davignon uses the term "common" to describe a population of between 10 and 19 coins known. By anyones measure, that is not a common issue, and under the standard rarity scale, that's a high R-6, and considered Very Rare. Also, there may be as few as 2500 known to survive, from all 339 varieties.

[James_OldeTowne]

Ah, gotcha!

 

For what it's worth, Davignon reserves a phrase specially for this variety: "extremely common" ....

[coinman1794]

haha! Does he define it in numerical terms?

[RockMyAmadeus]

Some interesting facts to put this in perspective:

 

Average daily wage of skilled labor (carpenters, mechanics, etc) in 1825:

 

Male -

 

Farm labor: 28c/day (includes board)

Nonfarm Labor: $1/day

Mason:$1.62/day

Carpenters: $1.45/day

Cotton Textiles: $1.08/day

 

Female -

 

Servants: 18c/day

Cotton Textiles: 41c/day

 

Keeping in mind that in 1825 there was no such thing as an 8 hour work day, nor a 40 hour work week. People worked 6 days a week, 12 hours or more a day.

 

So 50 cents would be worth about 4 hours of the most skilled laborers' work, and 6 hours of the textile workers.

 

In today's dollars, very, very roughly, based on the average pay rate for a Journeyman (non-Union) carpenter of $35/hour, that 50 cents is worth about $140 today.

 

Quite a substantial bit of money, and well worth the counterfeiter's time.

 

 

source: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c2486.pdf

[coinman1794]

That really helps put it into perspective. Thanks!