Posted on 06/30/2009 7:48:24 PM PDT by CapnJack
“Good info also on the counterfeit Morgans from China. Are there any ways you tell them—dates, marks, etc?”
Not super easily. When they first appeared, they were clearly stamped REPLICA in letters about the size of the letters around the rim of a Jefferson nickel. Of course, you’re looking at these and thinking to yourself “Hmmm, would I be fooled if those stamped letters weren’t there?” Turns out there is a largish counterfeit rare-coin industry in China. Big surprise.
The one super easy no-doubt test is one the seller may well not let you do: Silver coins dropped on a hard surface (wood will do) have a very distinct ring to them that no other metal composition produces. I remember one time (only a few years ago) I was sitting at a coffee shop and a kid ran by with a plastic baggie full of coins. It broke right next to me and the coins spilled out. I heard that sound. Turns out there was one silver dime in the bag of probably 150 coins, and I was able to exchange w/him for a nice shiny new one before he spent it.
These SD counterfeits are made of silver-plated pewter, which, if weighed on a scale, has truly an annoyingly close weight to silver. I’m sure a high precision weighing could catch them.
It also depends if you’ve seen zillions of SDs. The wear patterns seen on genuine circulated coins are different from those of recently minted coins. I’ve seen many many SDs, I am not a collector (beyond owning a dozen or so gathered thru the years) but I’m not sure I’d trust myself to discern purely by eye.
But that is not entirely reliable, for example, the coining machines in New Orleans [”O” mint mark] were much more crude machines than used in the other mints and produced lesser quality strikes.
If you’ve never been to a coin show, you probably have no idea of just how many silver dollars there are out there. There are simply gargantuan numbers of them. There were many years when the mintage was over 100 MM and they were made 1878-1921, a lot of years, at 5 different mints. (Obviously, some are very rare and have mintage waaaay below those numbers) Even after the great silver melts of the 80’s, there are staggering numbrs of them.
If the coin is inside a slab as a numismatic piece, there you’re in a quandary.
By the way, I don’t mean to suggest that dealers at these shows would knowingly try to sell fake coins. Emphatically, they would NOT. That’d be a reputation-killer. I HAVE seen them sell clearly-marked replicas as replicas.
The last thing I’d say is that some dealers have bins of “average condition” SDs and “better condition” SDs and despite the general admonition not to do so, they clean them, typically ultrasonically. This results in an entire box of SDs that look precisely the same, patina-wise. I don’t know what you do with those.
I have purchased from them and there service has been excellent. You do have to be available to sign for delivery or go to the post office. The shipping box is neutral to hide the contents. They do not have shipment tracking on the website. You only receive an email that it has been shipped.
That is where I would need to request them to leave the package at the Post Office for me to pick up. I am never home during normal mail delivery hours.
Thanks again for your testimonial about this company.
ASD,
Thank you—you were most kind to send such a detailed, informative response. Thank you!
I collected coins when I was younger—haven’t been into it much since.
I mosey into a coin shop and fall in love with coins all over again, so I have to leave before I give all of them a new home!
Counterfeits are always a problem. It would stand to reason that the Chinese would be involved in faking even Morgan dollars, as plentiful as the real ones still are—they fake everything else!
I know the “ring” you speak of—that distinctive sound of a 90% silver coin, rather than the tinny thud of post 1964 coins.
I was looking through some rolls of pennies from the bank recently and found a 1916 Lincoln cent in EF condition. It made think of it travels and who held it.
It is hard to explain the wonder of coins. But when you have bitten by the bug, you know it.
Thanks again for sharing that information.
You’re welcome. If you can get to a coin show, I’d reco it. It’s really pretty cheap entertainment, an OK way to blow off 2-3 hours on a Sat/Sun, and the people are pretty nice.
Of course, when you go into a coin shop, you’re looking at a small business that has to pay a monthly rent on the turnover of coins. And, if you think about it, the act of falling in love with them on anything but a very exceptional basis runs counter to that idea.
The most successful small coin dealer I know (and he isn’t into world-class multi-million dollar one-in-the-worlds) is a very nice guy who just believes in aggressively and relentlessly flipping his inventory. Almost all the other dealers are engaged in a love-fest. Sure, he has his own collections, and probably a #1, #2, and #3 of each type. But for the most part, he sells cheaper than most and buys about the same, maybe a skosh better than most. He doesn’t fall in love. I think he aims to make 15% on a coin and unless the coin is magical, he just blasts them thru. While this is happening, should he find a few in truly exceptional condition, he’ll upgrade his collections of that type and sell off the demoted ones. He’s at every show, you look at his stuff, he has $200K+ sitting there, easy. On a 2-day show I suspect he’ll do $100K in gross and pull $12K net out of it. Not bad for a weekend. Meanwhile, he’s always buying stuff and sometimes finds a goldmine, and times like what we are going through cough out lots of collections. Most of which are glud, but once in a while...
He bought a collection of Hawaiian coins, I think from the 1880’s or 1890’s. Really weird coins that I know utterly nothing about. One of them turned out to be insanely rare and I think he sold that one coin for $70K, after buying the whole collection for low $20K. He just understands that get deals like that, you have to be out there and active. I just admire the guy, he knows how the biz works, and he works it.
it was about $300, so now its about $900 is about x3
ping
I have purchased silver through them and it was easy and their prices were fair.
They have a very good website which is easy to navigate.
I will buy from them again.
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