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Interesting range of counterfeits - in 1910 !

RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited June 1, 2018 9:56AM in U.S. Coin Forum

This letter is self explanatory. Available archive documents mention quite a few counterfeit coins being sent to the Mint for authentication, but I suspect the actual quantity was much larger. (Someone even tossed a fake dime in the church collection plate !)

Comments

  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,633 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I am a bit surprised that two counterfeit gold dollars would be around in 1910, unless perhaps some ancestor had gotten stuck with them decades earlier, and some heir had taken it to the bank and gotten the bad news.

    The Mexican dollar reference is quite cryptic!

    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • SmudgeSmudge Posts: 9,774 ✭✭✭✭✭

    A dime? Seems like a lot of work for little reward, even though a dime then was worth much more than now. Maybe they just cranked out a lot of them.

  • SaorAlbaSaorAlba Posts: 7,593 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Smudge said:
    A dime? Seems like a lot of work for little reward, even though a dime then was worth much more than now. Maybe they just cranked out a lot of them.

    If it was made from some base metal, probably cast, it could have been worth the while.

    Tir nam beann, nan gleann, s'nan gaisgeach ~ Saorstat Albanaich a nis!
  • SmudgeSmudge Posts: 9,774 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @SaorAlba said:

    @Smudge said:
    A dime? Seems like a lot of work for little reward, even though a dime then was worth much more than now. Maybe they just cranked out a lot of them.

    If it was made from some base metal, probably cast, it could have been worth the while.

    Well yes, didn't think they were silver. No point in that.

  • DaveWcoinsDaveWcoins Posts: 1,185 ✭✭✭
    edited June 1, 2018 3:41PM

    Interesting that the "Chief" of the Secret Service of the Treasury department would refer to silver dollars as "S.S." dollars -- presumable he meant Sterling Silver dollars (which silver dollars are not made out of, of course).

    Could SS refer to something else?

    Dave Wnuck. Redbook contributor; long time PNG Member; listed on the PCGS Board of Experts. PM me with your email address to receive my e-newsletter, and visit DaveWcoins.com Find me on eBay at davewcoins
  • CascadeChrisCascadeChris Posts: 2,526 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 1, 2018 5:10PM

    @DaveWcoins said:
    Interesting that the "Chief" of the Secret Service of the Treasury department would refer to silver dollars as "S.S." dollars -- presumable he meant Sterling Silver dollars (which silver dollars are not made out of, of course).

    Could SS refer to something else?

    I was thinking SS stood for "Standard Silver" since they were called Standard Dollars??

    I wonder if they had an O mm too..

    The more you VAM..
  • jmlanzafjmlanzaf Posts: 35,815 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Smudge said:
    A dime? Seems like a lot of work for little reward, even though a dime then was worth much more than now. Maybe they just cranked out a lot of them.

    There are hundreds of silver washed copper Barber dimes in Rochester. We've called them Rochester Counterfeits because we think they were made here. They are usually dated 1909.

    And you are forgetting the Henning nickels - just as much work and half the work.

    I've even seen counterfeit memorial cents and those REALLY don't seem worth it.

  • SmudgeSmudge Posts: 9,774 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Seems just as easy to make a quarter. Maybe less suspicion with a dime.

  • jmlanzafjmlanzaf Posts: 35,815 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Smudge said:
    Seems just as easy to make a quarter. Maybe less suspicion with a dime.

    Not if they are struck. Small, shallow relief coins can be struck with less pressure. If they are cast, makes no difference, but then they are easier to detect.

  • SmudgeSmudge Posts: 9,774 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Makes sense.

  • AUandAGAUandAG Posts: 24,894 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Seems PA was ripe for counterfeiters.

    bob :)

    Registry: CC lowballs (boblindstrom), bobinvegas1989@yahoo.com
  • RegulatedRegulated Posts: 2,992 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @DaveWcoins said:
    Interesting that the "Chief" of the Secret Service of the Treasury department would refer to silver dollars as "S.S." dollars -- presumable he meant Sterling Silver dollars (which silver dollars are not made out of, of course).

    Could SS refer to something else?

    They referred to them as Standard Silver Dollars.


    What is now proved was once only imagined. - William Blake
  • RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Yep. "SSD" = "Standard Silver Dollar;" The other silver coins were called "Subsidiary Silver."

    No idea why a bank was accepting Mexican silver.

    All of the addresses are of the people who submitted the fakes, not necessarily where they were made. Secret Service would use the data to build a distribution model and use that to help locate the counterfeit coin's source.

    According to SS reports I've read, the majority of counterfeit coins were cast - often in good silver. A counterfeiter could use scrap silverware and still make a profit. Die-struck counterfeits, such as the micro-o Morgan dollars, were unusual but also of greater concern to SS and Mint than casts. The current situation is similar - die-struck fakes are usually more of a threat than cast ones.

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @jmlanzaf....Counterfeit Memorial cents??? Really? I wonder why.... perhaps just people experimenting....No real value to be realized... Cheers, RickO

  • RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭

    in 1960 a gum ball was 1-cent. There was still "penny candy."

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