The Gray-Goodman 1969 DDO cent counterfeit
Zoins
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I was just reading about the 1969-S DDO cent and learned the fascinating story of the counterfeit 1969 DDO cent created by Roy Gray and Morton Goodman.
The story is interesting as the Secret Service produced counterfeit cents to prove it could be done as evidence against the pair.
Anyone have one of these?
Here's the story from CoinFacts:
https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1969-s-1c-ddo-fs-101-028-bn/37994
Jaime Hernandez wrote:
In 1969, Roy Gray and Morton Goodman began producing fake 1969 Doubled Die Lincoln cents and other counterfeit coins which soon came to the attention of the authorities. When the Secret Service searched Gray's residence in July 1969, they discovered rolled sheets of silver with the approximate thickness of unfinished U.S. coins as well as planchet punches for nickels, dimes, quarters and half dollars. Gray also possessed a collar for dimes, with 120 serrations (as opposed to the 118 serrations on authentic dimes). This collar was damning evidence when fake 1941 Dimes with 120 serrations were charged to Gray in his criminal proceedings.
Gray had managed to acquire an Agietron electrical discharge machine from Alina Corporation. This electrical discharge machine was capable of producing fake coin dies through the spark erosion process. Alina Corporation employees trained Mort Goodman in the proper use of the machine.
Once the fake 1969 Doubled Die Obverse cents were produced, Gray contacted a collector by the name of Robert Teitelbaum and asked him to market the illegal coins. One of the first fake cents sold for $100. Later, Teitelbaum sold 2900 of the fake 1969 Doubled Die Obverse cents to Sam Jowdy for $92,000 (slightly more than $30 each).
Gray asked Teitelbaum to place 85 fake 1969 doubled die cents into circulation in Washington. Instead, Teitelbaum turned over the 85 coins to the Secret Service.
Agent Miller from the Secret Service, using an electrical discharge machine, was successful in reproducing Gray’s fake 1969 Doubled Die obverse cents. This evidence was used against Gray and Goodman and the Secret Service began to recover as many of the fakes as possible. In the meantime, Cecil Moorhouse and Bill Hudson were credited in July 1970 with discovering the first 1969-S Doubled Die Obverse cents. As the Secret Service searched for fake 1969 Doubled Die Obverse cents, they found several authentic 1969-S Doubled Die Obverse cents. The Secret Service automatically assumed that some of these 1969-S Doubled Die cents were fake and ordered them to be destroyed, making a rare coin even rarer.
Roy Gray and Morton Goodman were sentenced to multiple years in prison for counterfeiting U.S. coins.
Comments
Are there any pics of the 1969 counterfeit doubled die cent?
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
Here's a machine that sounds like the one used to create these.
Anyone know how these work?
Agie Agietron Compact 3 Sinker Electrical Discharge Machine EDM
https://www.ebay.com/c/20007055147
Alan Herbert's photos were included in John Wexler's 1981 Error-Variety News cover story.
https://www.numismaticnews.net/archive/roll-find-may-hit-100000
I remember the coin. The spread was much greater than the 1969-S doubled die.
Another coin that caused a lot of excitement was the 1977 7/6 cent that was pictured on the front page of "Coin World." That one proved to be fake, too, but what an overdate it would have been if only it was real.
That would be great to see. From a cursory search, I wonder if they are much more rare than Henning and Omega counterfeits.
Neat. It would be great to get some info and photos of that too.
I tried to find an image without success. It made the 1942 2/1 dime look weak. I'll keep looking.
Here is an image of the 1977 7/6 cent. Unfortunately the quality of the image isn't good.
For a brief time in July 1977, this fake overdate 1977/6 Lincoln cent was declared genuine by three of the Bureau of the Mint’s leading technical experts. It was ultimately declared to be a fake and the man who sent the coin to “Coin World” received probation for violations of federal laws regarding counterfeiting.
Coin World image.
That's a great looking overdate @koynekwest! It's unfortunate it's a counterfeit.
Here's some Coin World issues that cover this.
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/searchwithterms?searchterm=1977 cent overdate
Here's an online article:
https://www.coinworld.com/voices/gerald-tebben/for_a_brief_timeth.html
Here's further comments by Bill Gibbs in "Collector's Clearinghouse" as seen in "Coin World."
Forty years ago this month, in the summer of 1977, a Coin World reader sent the editorial staff a coin reportedly pulled from a roll of mixed cents acquired for making change at the finder’s swap shop. The coin was stunning in appearance and potentially the biggest discovery in years — an overdate 1977/6 Lincoln cent.
An overdate results when a numeral (or numerals) is punched or hubbed over another numeral. While during the early history of the U.S. Mint, overdates were a fairly frequent occurrence, by the 20th century, such varieties were rarely produced. In fact, the last confirmed overdates known in 1977 were produced during World War II and both were on 10-cent coins: the 1941/1 and 1942/1-D Winged Liberty Head dimes (the 1943/2-P Jefferson 5-cent coin had not been found yet).
Our preliminary examination of the cent gave us hope that it might be real but we held off on publication until we could consult with expert help. It was decided that we would submit the cent to the Bureau of the Mint’s technical experts for their review and possible authentication. Remember, 1977 was in the early days of third-party authentication, with the American Numismatic Association Certification Service in its infancy, and although its main authenticator, the deeply respected Ed Fleischmann, in fact had been a Coin World employee until the previous fall, we decided to consult with the experts who presumably had struck the coin.
On rare occasion, Coin World editor Margo Russell would reach out to Mint officials and ask them to examine a coin for us; that’s what she did this time. On July 1, we received the Mint’s verdict, though it was preliminary. Dr. Alan J. Goldman, the Mint’s assistant director for technology, and Dr. George E. Hunter, chief of the assay division, had reviewed the coin and thought it genuine.
Goldman and Hunter were two of the most knowledgeable individuals regarding coinage production in the country. Based on their expertise, Coin World published a Page One article in its July 13, 1977, issue announcing the find. We did report that the judgment was preliminary; the two experts wanted to consult with one more Mint expert before rendering a final decision. That would not occur until July 5 at the earliest.
After the Independence Day break, the Mint’s Technical Laboratory’s third expert, Tom Jurich, arrived back at the Washington, D.C., headquarters (he had been testifying in a counterfeiting case) and examined the coin. He agreed with his colleagues that the coin was genuine. Coin World received the happy news on July 5 that it was the unanimous opinion of the Mint experts that the coin was a genuine Mint product. The next day, everything fell apart.
On July 6, the Mint technicians journeyed from Mint headquarters to the Philadelphia Mint where they did some additional testing that led them to reverse their decision. They said that they were able to replicate the process outside of the normal die-making process by creating an artificial die. While they would not disclose how they made the artificial die, they did share that the process was similar to how fake dies had been created to produce counterfeit “double dies” and “over struck” coins that became the subject of several trials in the 1960s.
Goldman told Coin World that the 1977/6 fake was good. “It had everyone fooled for a while,” he said. Jurich said the areas around the bottom back of Lincoln’s shoulder on the obverse and around three letters in AMERICA held clues to the coin being fake.
By this time, the news published in the July 13 issue had spread and offers were being made for additional examples at prices as high as $200. Goldman said that as long as additional examples did not enter the numismatic marketplace, the Secret Service would not be interested. However, he was premature in that assessment.
Coin World reported the reversal of the Mint’s assessment of the coin in its July 20 issue.
Not long after, Mint officials informed Coin World that the fake overdate cent would not be returned but instead had been turned over to the Secret Service. Agents from the Cincinnati office of the Secret Service came to Coin World’s offices in Sidney, Ohio, on July 12 to confiscate another coin that had been sent to us along with correspondence. We objected to the Mint’s decision, noting that by not returning the cent to us, they were violating a longtime agreement between the government and the publication. We had no choice, however, but to comply with the Secret Service’s confiscation of the coins.
On July 17, Secret Service agents from the Tampa, Florida, office arrested two men in connection with the production of the fake 1977/6 Lincoln cent. An additional 17 altered coins were confiscated along with the paraphernalia to manufacture them. The men were charged with violating counterfeiting laws by being in possession of a counterfeit die. Ultimately, the man who had sent us the fake overdate was sentenced to probation for violating federal laws.
For a brief time, though, the hobby thought that the best die variety in decades had been identified, and the market was hopeful that more pieces would be found. It was not meant to be.
Great info! Love all the details on Mint personnel.
Seems like these can be known as Tampa counterfeits, absent other identifying information. Were the identities of the counterfeiters ver published?
Interesting series of events. Thanks for that. Peace Roy
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I knew both Mort and Roy back then -
Met both of them for the first time at the
very first Error-A-Rama at the Hollywood
Roosevelt Hotel, March (I think) 1967.
I was 17 years old then. After the EAR,
and it's success, the Error Club of Hollywood
was formed, the first 'in person' Error Club.
Very familiar with that situation.
for PCGS. A 49+-Year PNG Member...A full numismatist since 1972, retired in 2022
Not that I recall, but it may have been in a followup story. I spoke with the person who sent it in to get permission to send the piece to the Mint, which he agreed to, and to get some background information for a story about the piece. I remember that he said he was born in Germany, which matched his accent.
My only comment on Bill's excellent narration is that when word first came from the Mint that the overdate was genuine, I never heard the word "preliminary," or I would have couched my story a bit differently. Unfortunately, the Mint communicated directly with the Editor, Margo Russell, and she communicated to me and Bill that the Mint had said that the overdate was genuine. The word "preliminary" got lost between her office and ours.
When we sent the coin to the Mint, Margo had the Director of the Mint's personal guarantee that the coin would be returned to us no matter what the findings. They were friends after all. When the word came that the Mint had changed their mind about the piece, I started making plans to hand carry it to Colorado Springs on my own nickel for a third opinion from ANACS (having already gotten two from the Mint), but then the Mint overruled the Director and told us that they would not be returning the coin after all.
Wow! It's great that you met them in-person.
Must have been historic to be at the first in-person error club gathering too.
Is there anything more you can and are willing to share?
Very interesting ....And I have heard people ask "Why counterfeit a cent (or nickel)?"... Well, because people will pay huge premiums for error coins... Cheers, RickO
Zoins, I knew them both thru the monthly ECOH
meetings, meeting at local shows, and got to know
Mort pretty well, as he would drive us from his
home in Hollywood out to Santa Ana (Orange County)
to print the Errorscope each month.
Not much to add off the top of my head - if you have
a specific question, I'll try to answer it if I know.
for PCGS. A 49+-Year PNG Member...A full numismatist since 1972, retired in 2022
I remember seeing this in "Coin World" back in '77 while on break at the Post Office. I showed it to everyone in the break room, telling them to keep an eye out for it.
That's great info from you, Zoins. I don't remember any info on the identity of the counterfeiters.
The reason I sold mine in 1973 was due to the fact that legal ownership was still in question at the time according to the people I contacted. John Devine refused to go out on a limb and authenticate it due to legal ramifications lest he be wrong. Natalie Halpern of NY was the dealer who purchased it.
Understandable. Lots of things were murky and changing in the early 70s.
Do you remember how much you purchased and sold it for?
I didn't know about the 1969 DDO cent counterfeit.
Very interesting.
Thank you.
Zoins, as I've mentioned before I found it roll hunting. Since there were no grading companies the consensus was that it was XF, no luster left and hits all over. Nice coin, just a typical circulating cent. Sold for $385 which was a boatload of cash for a 15 year old.