Home Shopping Network Morgan Silver Dollars
monkerz
Posts: 6 ✭
I am 100% new to this hobby. My father passed away a year ago and I found a box of coins along with some coins from HSN with a letter of authenticity. From what I have learned, all Morgan Silver Dollars should weigh 26.73 grams or a hair less if it was in circulation. I decided to look at them today and weigh them. Only 3 of them weigh 26.7 grams which were from 1921 and the two 1800's ones weigh far less. One weighing 22.48 and the other 22.57 grams. Being new to this, Even though this has a certificate of authenticity, I would say those are fake right? Again I know nothing about coins, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Yes. Absolutely fake
Not even a good fake
Welcome
The 1888 is fake, good catch. Most people new to the hobby wouldn't even think twice about it.
Welcome to the forum.
Based on the obverse images, the 1888 and 1879 look like counterfeits, though I’m not as certain about the 1879. Can you post reverse images of each?
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Howdy and welcome. I am sorry for your loss.
Keep in mind that you have no way of being certain that the pieces in the box and the certificate purportedly from HSN belong to one another. This could just be a marriage of fakes and worthless COA from a shopping network that your father purchased at one time.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
This ^^^^. HSN is a lot of things, but a purveyor of fakes is not one of them.
Bear in mind: creating a fake "certificate of authenticity" is much easier than creating a fake coin. All you need is a colour printer. Or a black and white printer, in this case.
And in this case, I don't think "HSN" here is meant to stand for "Home Shopping Network". The "real HSN" is based in Florida; this certificate claims to be from California. The only similar "Certificate of authenticity" I could find online is this pocket watch, which doesn't include the "HSN" line below the signature; it has "9061" there instead. So I think those are just codes that the shadowy un-named mass-marketeers are using to track which certificate goes with which product on the assembly line.
The box also looks 1970s-1980s vintage, which was before "the real HSN" began under that name.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.
Home Shopping Network would not allow fakes to be sold. The "HSN" here stands for something else.
Given that it's under the signature, it's probably the title. The company is at the left "U.P.M."
Walmart and UPM
American Coin Treasures
© Copyright 2024 UPM Global, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Similar looking set.
When Jesse James robbed a bank, the loot carried off was most often Morgan Silver Dollars. The elegant .900 Fine Silver coin was introduced in 1878, the same year silver money replaced gold as common U.S. legal tender. Today, the Morgan Silver Dollar is the most popular collectible coin of the past quarter century. This historic set contains a coin from the first (1878) and last (1921) years of issue and one from each of the only five mints where Morgan Dollars were struck. It includes the unusual New Orleans Mint Morgan, a specimen from the only year the coin was struck at the Denver Mint, and the rarest of all, one bearing the mint mark of the long defunct Carson City, Nevada Mint.
$799.95
I have to assume that this organization only deals in genuine U.S. coins unless stated otherwise.
Head S****y Numsimatist?
Chopmarked Trade Dollar Registry Set --- US & World Gold Showcase --- World Chopmark Showcase
Home Shopping Network/General Council? Is the lawyer a numismatist?
Bad counterfeit.
Thanks for all your input. My father did live in Chicago and was known to buy things off the street. I assume they swapped out the good coins and put in 3 fakes. But I'm glad I did not make myself look dumb trying to sell them. He also has another 5lb bag of coins which were all fake. For a day I thought I would was gonna be rich 🤑 WTF am I going to do with 5lbs of fake Morgan's? Not even worth scrapping is it?
Did you mean to say “3 fakes”, rather than 2? I see two.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Oops. Yes. 2 fakes and then this pile of 23-25g pile of fakes. What do honest people do with fakes? Other than be dishonest and find a poor victim.
If there are any good looking fakes, there are those that do collect them. I have a counterfeit trade dollar that still looks good in a belt buckle. Lol
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Did they all weigh in at much less than 26.73 gm?
Range from 21g to 23.5g. Around 4 hit 25.5g.
Wow, a whole bagfull of fakes...maybe you could try to sell them as fakes on the BST Forum as learning tools. Promote them as what to look for with counterfeit coins, weight, color, magnetic, etc. etc. More people need to know what to look for and how to compare them...
That is definitely the biggest collection of fakes I’ve ever seen. It’s bizarrely impressive to me.
Having fun while switching things up and focusing on a next level PCGS slabbed 1950+ type set, while still looking for great examples for the 7070.
These appear to be relatively modern fakes you can buy in quantity from a number of online sellers that often operate out of Asia. I see no sense in attempting to sell these as "educational". They are a lost asset.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
George Washington threw them across the river. They were not real either, I imagine.
Great for target practice, and that is all. Attempting to sell fakes not marked COPY is against the law.
bob
The COA from HSN is from the First Commemorative Mint Inc and is signed by Gene Buonanno ANA #1218221.
How does someone consistently buy this many fakes ? Maybe sellers inventory ?
Almost definitely. Unless he was a faithful customer of a seller of fakes.
I see at least two flowing hair or draped bust dollars in there, and one that might be a trade dollar of simply a made up design.
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My Father ran a hardware store in a rough area. I'm pretty sure he felt sorry for someone and bought them all. Sadly I thought I was rich for a day 😂
a couple of years ago, a local coin dealer brought in two or three binders full of fake Morgan dollars. He used these to give a presentation to the local coin club.
Some of them were very good, and I could not tell they were fake. Others, were obvious fakes.
Perhaps he might be interested in adding to his collection of fake Morgans. Would you be interested in contacting him to see if he is interested? If so, PM me and I will respond with his contact information.
Im on vacation for another 10 days. When I get back home I was gonna have a local dealer confirm I'm not rich and then PM you as I don't need them other than they look cool.
Give 'em back or offer to get rid of them imho.
"It's like God, Family, Country, except Sticker, Plastic, Coin."
Felt sorry for someone, or thought he was getting over on someone and ended being taken advantage of himself?
It honestly makes no sense for a hardware store owner in a rough area to get a sudden urge to become a silver stacker, and then to do so by paying actual market value for authentic versions of those coins, without having any idea what he was doing, rather than going online and buying ASEs.
Your father likely was sold a story, and then thought he was taking advantage by "helping" someone out by taking silver off their hands at a fraction of its value. Just like everyone else who falls for this scam.
These coins otherwise have no value at all, and the scammers wouldn't waste their time and money making and marketing them if people didn't bite. It's just another version of every scam involving Nigerian princes, big winnings in lotteries that were never entered, or any of the other versions being peddled online and via phone 24/7.
Going back to the original set of 5 Morgan Dollars ... having seen the huge stack of fake Morgans (and more) I am quite sure the fakes in that blue holder were replacements for real Morgan Dollars. The original seller of the set of five almost certainly had no connection to the fakes that later found their way into the blue holder.
This is awfully speculative given that even the OP had no idea where they came from. From all we know, he might have bought them himself from aliexpress or FB.
This is a very interesting, maybe very sad story that died with the dad. Pity.
Correct. In fact, that seems highly likely. The crap on the linked website often shows up on satellite TV shopping channels, at even more ridiculous prices. The prices indicate that the coins are not fake, since there would be no reason for them to be at those inflated prices.
If the coins are silver, why can they not be sold as scrap?
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Dahlonega Type Set-2008 PCGS Best Exhibited Set
Because they are zinc not silver
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See attached pics of a fake Morgan cut in half. Against a white background, the guts are a brassy yellow. They're not magnetic but also not silver. Enjoy. Peace Roy
Btw, I drill a hole in them and give them as key fobs or tool checks.
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