1799 $10 (Any old gold experts out there?)

hughesm1

Closed Auction Safe to assume this is not genuine? Anyone versed in the early gold area wish to chime in?

Placid

Looks fake to me. I have looked at alot of gold and the color of that one dosen't look right to me.
I am no expert thou.

braddick

Gallery Mint reproduction? They've made these 1799's. Does the upper reverse shield look tooled where the COPY would have been?!

darktone

That is a $7,000+ coin if it's real. Chance of being real 0%. I have bought several fakes from germany. German ebay is the most dishonest part of ebay not only do you see alot of fakes but with German privacy laws sellers can bid on there own goods with no way to tell if it's a schill bid. mike

1jester

I agree that the color doesn't look right to me, but with the caveat that it's very difficult to ascertain proper color with just a scan. But I would say that the strike looks WAY too modern; older coins will look less uniform and less even. This one simply looks too modern. I can't tell if the shield is tooled or not, but it doesn't look right, either. By the way, the seller has added two comments. In the first one, he says that other eBay users have suggested that this coin is/might be a fake. He says it may be a restrike from 1900, but it certainly is made of gold. He says he knows nothing about the authenticity of the coin, but welcomes any advice in this regard, which he promises to publish on the auction site. In his second addition, he answers questions about the weight and measurements of the coin, but adds that he doesn't possess a micrometer.

Most likely fake. Many exist in Europe of many different coins; the sellers and counterfeiters rely on the buyers' ignorance and willingness to be suckered.

darktone

The diagnostics for the common fake is a lump to the right of the last 9 in the date and another lump to the left of the L in liberty. mike

pmh1nic

I couldn't tell you based on the scan whether it's fake or real but fake or real anyone that would bid on this coin sight unseen needs to read Anthony Swiatek's recent article in coin world on buying raw coins.

GAT

FAKE as fake can be! Counterfeiting of U.S. gold coins has been a cottage industry in Europe for years. I can remember walking the street of cities such as, Basel, Zurich, and Frankfurt and seeing fake U.S. gold in every other shop window. This wasn't only my opinion but that of European friends. I was stationed in England and Germany from 1951-1954. Also make many trips back in the 60 & 70s.

1jester

GAT, it hasn't changed much since then. But some real coins do pop up once in a while.

griffin6

Front looks bad... too soft. On the other hand, the back looks pretty good and it could be a case of obverse cleaning. For those of you who don't speak German, the seller was asked about the authenticity and pleaded ignorance!

BillJones

Yea, this coin is screaming bad. The obverse isn't even close if you are familiar with the real thing. The East Germans counterfeited a lot of U.S. coins back in the 1960s and '70s. Perhaps that's where this lump of gold came from.

1jester

Recently I saw (in Poland) a $5 1911 that was fake; it sold at auction for over $5000. Its color was off too. A few years back, a dealer wanted to sell me a group of $20 gold coins, all about MS65, and they were the rarest of the rare. All together!! The possibilities of such a group existing (for $400 each) is scientifically impossible. But the fakes were so good that I couldn't tell. I understand that fakes are being made in the middle east now, and the quality is extremely high.

Beware.