I passed on a 1909-S VDB yesterday....

[James_OldeTowne]

... because I wasn't 100% sure of it's authenticity. The obverse appeared completely genuine, with the "S" properly shaped and placed, but the VDB on the reverse seemed suspicious. The "B" seemed OK, with the square upper loop and rectangular bottom loop, as well as the slightly slanted middle bar. But the "V" didn't look quite right, with the left arm significantly longer than the right arm. Also, the "D" has serifs that just didn't seem right to me.

 

Here's the weirdest part though. For a couple of minutes, I couldn't quite put my finger on the most obvious "problem" until I suddenly realized that there were no periods between the initials.

 

Finally, the whole coin wasn't quite the right color, as if it had been darkened chemically.

 

Does this sound to you like it was a counterfeit? I couldn't find any tooling marks on the initials, nor did they appear glued on, but unfortunately, I only had my 7x loupes with me.

 

If anyone has any info, I'd appreciate it. The seller seemed honest and trustworthy, and genuinely seemed not to be aware of the origin of the coin (he inherited it).

 

James

[zrlevin]

Better safe then sorry!

[Buffalo_Pete]

One of the little things not known by a lot of people is the placement of the VDB on the reverse on ALL 1909 coins.

 

All GENUINE 1909 coins with VDB reverses share one distinct trait:

 

The VDB itself is NOT centered beween the wheat ends.

 

It is ever so slightly positioned just a tad left of center.

 

Check a known genuine coin first, then

 

Check yours out. No added initials that I know of are put in the "real" location.

 

Pete

[crazyboutcoins-migration]

Sharp eye there James.

Very interesting Pete. I did not know that. Thanks for the tip. Now I'm going to have to go to the bay or heritage and check it out or dig one out I have here (not an S I can assure you).

[Bruceswar]

I think you did the right thing, but if it is that hard for you to determine in the first place, don't you think you could move it at a profit reguardless if you moved it to another dealer. I don't t you could have lost on the coin. Just my thoughts... its almost the same as buying an AT coin, but you still know someone will want it at the price you set.

[James_OldeTowne]

Hi Pete. Indeed, I did know this fact, and the VDB initials were correctly placed a bit off center to the left.

 

I neglected to mention that the customer did not want to sell the coin outright. He wanted to trade his coin against two of mine (large cents) that I valued at $785 total.

 

James

[Bruceswar]

What did the coin grade?

[James_OldeTowne]

Just shy of EF, but the surface color was not nice at all. It had apparently been recolored.

 

James

[Bruceswar]

If it was recolored, I would have passed as well, just on that fact alone

[Weidel Legacy Collection]

James -

Have you read the book titled "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell? If not, take a look as it does a wonderful job of describing the experience you had where you just 'know' the coin isn't right, but can't put your finger on why. Its a fascinating read.

[paperchaser-migration]

A very wise -- "no buy".

Old Mississippi Choctaw Indian saying: "if it looks too good to be true, then the white man probably messed with it"