A Rare Trade $ Error

tradedollarnut

I just bought this off ebay. If it's real, it was a great pickup. I've watched for trade dollar errors for nearly a decade now and never seen one of any significance [remember, they were minted to be shipped to China. Any funky look and the Chinese would probably have rejected them on the spot].

Trade Dollar Error

MrEureka

Good luck! (Although I think you'll need it. )

coinlieutenant

Looks real enough to me...

Die rotation errors never did it for me personally but it is a nice looking coin regardless.

V.r,
John

tradedollarnut

Andy: You party p00per! That's why I made sure the seller had a return privilege and paid by credit card....

My first inclination was that it couldn't be real, but the workmanship of the dies was too good. I can't find the normal little errors in design that the Chinese copies usually have. But....sometimes you gotta hold the coin and examine it closely to be sure. What makes you say?

MrEureka

The luster is weird, the rims are weird, and the detail is so much better than described. Of course that doesn't prove anything, but my money's on NG.

Coinosaurus

I collected rotated die coins for many years & they are very unusual in the TD series. There are a few more in SDs tho.

tradedollarnut

Copied from my post across the street. Useful for quick catches on fake trade dollars:


Easy catches off a scan are:

last digit of the date looks larger than the other digits
type two reverse [no berry] on early date coins
type one reverse [berry] on later date coins
wrong neck feathers for reverse type
no period after 'FINE' [not conclusive, but a clue]
poor definition on the zeros in 420 and 900
poor definition/odd strike of denticles
poor details in the die/coin [ie: mushy or off]
wrong relief on Liberty and Eagle's feathers [ie: flat but w/ sharp details]
wrong shape to rim area between denticles and edge of coin

Additional catches w/ in person inspection:

'ring test' off [ie: not silver]
wrong luster
incomplete reeding
diagnostics of fake dies [usually known depressions, lines, pits, tooling, etc]
coin looks too perfect & fresh

lathmach

I have never seen a Trade Dollar struck with rotated dies.

Ray

Baley

I will be surprised if that is a genuine coin.

mgoodm3

Thanks for the info on diagnosing fakes. I'll stick to slabbed for now.