1794 Flowing Hair Dollar, Real or Counterfeit? 2 2

[omazak]

Hello to all!

I am writing to you from Istanbul Turkey.  I have doubts that this silver dollar I bought in 2015 is real. I would be grateful if you could help me as to whether this coin is genuine or not.  I used glass lense, so I could see the details more clearly and decided to write to you.
Kind regards,
O.M.

 

[Fenntucky Mike]

On 9/20/2023 at 5:53 AM, omazak said:

Hello to all!

I am writing to you from Istanbul Turkey.  I have doubts that this silver dollar I bought in 2015 is real. I would be grateful if you could help me as to whether this coin is genuine or not.  I used glass lense, so I could see the details more clearly and decided to write to you.
Kind regards,
O.M.

 

Welcome to the forum,

I'm sorry to say that the coin in the images is not genuine. An absolute fake.

[omazak]

Thank you very much. There are some other coins as well. I will write about them from time to time.

[Greenstang]

This is the forum for buying and selling coins.

In the future, please post any coins in the “Newbie” forum at the top.

Moved by moderator to proper Forum

Edited September 20, 2023 by Greenstang

[CIII]

My goodness.  That is not even a good fake.

[JKK]

Yeah, it's a pretty bad one.

Wife and I had a great time in Istanbul a few years back. It was during some marathon (more Turkish flags than you could possibly imagine) and there was an absolute downpour, but the people were friendly and the sights were amazing. Aya Sofya, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace...history is everywhere in Istanbul.

[powermad5000]

Hello!

The simplistic details are a dead giveaway that this coin is a fake. I have provided a photo of the obverse from NGC CoinExplorer for your observation to see the differences between your coin and a legitimate specimen.

Some additional information for you regarding this issue. About 2,000 specimens were struck with only 1,758 that were acceptable. Of that there are only about 125 survivors which are mostly well worn or damaged. With the high dollar value involved it is easy to see why counterfeiters would make an attempt to fake one of these. They are basically a collectors fantasy coin as most will never find one available and even if they do find one, won't be able to afford the extremely high price tag.

[EagleRJO]

On 9/20/2023 at 5:53 AM, omazak said:

I would be grateful if you could help me as to whether this coin is genuine or not

If you want to see why ppl are saying it's not genuine check out images of legit coins in various grades at the following link.  CoinFacts can be used to look up any US coin.

https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1794-1/6851

[omazak]

Thank you very much for your accurate information, your helpfulness and your well-intentioned corrections.

[Henri Charriere]

This is where me and the membership part ways.  To them, if it ain't real, i.e., authentic, it's fake and by extension, worthless.  But this line of thought suggests there is something wrong with the buyer's mental faculties.  Just last week, $35 million worth of fake handbags, wrist watches and designer apparel -- counterfeits -- were confiscated off the sidewalks adjacent to a single street intersection in the heart of New York's Chinatown.  The fact of the matter is the supply is there because so, too, is the demand. Were copyrights, trade-marks and intellectual property rights violated? Of course, they were!  How else is the ordinary shopper going to get his hands on a Rolex or Louis Vuitton bag in his lifetime?  Contemporary counterfeits aside, there are legitimate fakes, genuine counterfeits and mind-boggling fugazies. (I do not like the word COPY.)

Seeing as how the Turks have elevated the peddling of pedestrian articles to the heights with clever psychology combined with sufficient skillful artistry, with the complicity of the unsuspecting buyer, the only question that is applicable here, in the case of a rare coin, is the unasked one:  HOW MUCH DID YOU PAY FOR THIS COIN AFTER ALL THE HAGGLING WAS DONE AND OVER WITH?  That answer, more than all the gratuitous scrutiny and comparison shopping, and numismatic references will tell you everything you need to know about the item you bought on a gritty street from a total stranger catering to the itinerant tourist (his lifeblood) instead of from the locked vault of an established reputable dealer. The worst case scenario is the trust fund baby who, unsure of anything that requires due diligence, seeks validation of his taste by plunking down an obscene sum of money for a painting by a Renaissance artist solely on the strength of name recognition. By now, I imagine you have looked up the price of what an authentic "Flowing Hair" '94 goes for. At present, a Turkish lira is worth just under four U.S. cents. Only you know how you fared.

Edited September 21, 2023 by Henri Charriere
Routine die-polishing

[omazak]

Hello. Unfortunately, I cannot agree with most of what you wrote. I know you didn't expect this. What I was trying to do here was to benefit from your experiences. Is this a mistake? Or a cunning? Of course not.

If your experience or what you've heard has turned into prejudice and generalization, that's not my problem. While I partially agree with you, I reject your generalization. You may encounter similar situations in every country. Good and bad are possibilities that exist in every country. And of course I have my opinion on the value of a genuine 1794 flowing hair silver dollar. What's wrong with this?

And when I shared this post, I did not think about the value of the Turkish lira against the dollar. I don't think this is necessary either.

Kind regards.