• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

1776 Continental Currency- Real or Fake??
1 1

87 posts in this topic

Wish it was that easy!  Well, the mushy grainy lettering and devices on this one indicate a cast coin.  Higher quality fakes can be extremely difficult to tell.  Study up on any coins you are interested in and the minting process'  look at as many genuine coins as you can.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, KevDOG67 said:

Thanks, are there and distinguishing features to know it's a fake so I know for next time. 

It was easy. Someone new here posted a pic of it. That told me it was a fake.

I'm kidding with a note of seriousness. The serious part is yeah, the percentage is so overwhelming that we barely need to look at the pics. So many replicas have been made over the years, and it seems like everyone's grandfolks had one. Few of the fakes made any serious attempt at fooling anyone and I think most were for souvenir/fun purposes. This was one of the least serious I've seen in terms of the surface.

The kidding part sounds like I'm faulting you, but I'm not; you can't hear joviality in typed text. I totally get it that it made sense to check it out and be as sure as possible, just in case. You were aware of the high likelihood of the outcome and accepted it, which is not as common as you might imagine and we might wish, and didn't try to give us *spoon* for not providing a particular answer. You provided photos of both sides. You put yourself squarely into the "worth our time to help" category (at least in my opinion); I hope you stick around, and with coin collecting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What's immediately "off" about it to me is that they made thousands, if not millions, of anything with 1776 on it, and sold them in souvenir shops for decades (maybe still do). I have one made into a tie clip. The chances that a real one is just laying around raw and not protected in a holder, after almost 250 years, is pretty close to zero.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, kbbpll said:

The chances that a real one is just laying around raw and not protected in a holder, after almost 250 years, is pretty close to zero.

Yet two like that have been found in the past ten years.

The latest one here is better than a lot of the fakes, but it is unfortunately still just a copy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Muffins said:

What is off about it? Most of what I could find online was a bit vague. 

So will we be, and for good reason. The unfortunate reality is that counterfeiters habitually post their products here, pretending to be people going through Bampaw's collection, to see if they can get improvement feedback. This, of course, is not in the hobby's interest. Not that I assume you are doing such; rather, if someone gives you public detailed guidance, that'd be a boon to the fakists who find the forum. "Oh, cool! See where that one went wrong?" And so on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lol, I guess I didn't think of it that way, but it does make sense. I will try to find a coin shop to take it to for confirmation, I just expected more than " its fake, because most are". Regardless , I appreciate yalls time and comments. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

I just expected more than " its fake, because most are".

 

It's not a case "because most are", it's a case of that it is a clear counterfeit. Compare a photo of a genuine 1776 Continental coin to yours and you can readily see the differences.  There are many. With a little homework, you can save yourself a trip to the coin shop.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even though most are fake, a genuine one did turn up in Europe fairly recently. Yours however is clearly a fake, everything about it just screams fake.  As Greenstang suggested, look at some photos of originals and you should see the differences.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Greenstang said:

Nice one. That looks like the rare "face on the sun variety".

[It may very well be.  I was hoping the likes of Just Bob would take the bait and request a photo of the reverse which I would be unable to provide because the following descriptors were inexplicably placed inside the interlocking state rings at the bottom by the die engraver, as follows: "2 ozt" (Virginia) ".999" (Maryland) and "silver" (Delaware). And yes, it has a reeded edge. I believe I paid $37. for it from the Intaglio mint.] 😉

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Arku said:

HI

How about this one?

Additionally, can someone also please give more clues?

Thanks

IMG_1124.JPG

IMG_1125.JPG

Poor fake.  Really examine photos of genuine coins, every detail and compare to yours.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Dr. Drea said:

Just curious, can you please tell me how you can tell? :smile:

Because I’ve seen dozens of genuine ones and hundreds of copies. The latter are very common.
If you carefully examine pictures of professionally graded genuine examples and compare them to yours, you should see differences in the details. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
1 1