Are these conterfieted...
stephunter
Posts: 2,324 ✭✭✭
Pardon my spelling if I got that wrong. Does anyone know if these or the oak tree shilling pieces are faked?
Pine tree on ebay
Pine tree on ebay
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Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Hmmmmm. Greenville, Michigan is about 20 miles from my office. Should I give them a call or a visit? I get something like this about once per week that comes into the office. One guy called last week and was afraid to come to my office with his rare coin without armed security. He claimed that his attorney had advised him to not remove the coin from his safety deposit box. When he finally brought the coin in I gave him a free appraisal. Value? $0.35
Our eBay auctions - TRUE auctions: start at $0.01, no reserve, 30 day unconditional return privilege & free shipping!
-YN Currently Collecting & Researching Colonial World Coins, Especially Spanish Coins, With a Great Interest in WWII Militaria.
My Ebay!
Sir, I do not know for sure if what you say is true or not. We have not had this looked at by an expert but we have done quite a bit of research on this coin (about four months.) It matches closely to the coin displayed in the Whitman red book. We would never intentionally mislead anyone with a product that we sell. Our intentions are to make every one of our customers happy to have bought an item from us and from Ebay Thank You for the email and we we will take into consideration the circumstances.
I guess we will see what their consideration turns out to be.
John Marnard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920, page 235ff
Come on, can't you guys think of a better way to accomodate folks with a new found interest in numismatics.
Here. I've created a side by side comparison of the cast counterfeit and two real Pine Trees. The middle is the counterfeit and the top and bottom are both genuine. Courtesy of Heritage auction archives for the images. It's pretty obvious to us but to the untrained eye, it would be a considerable task to determine if your coin is counterfeit without having seen at least one before.
Here is some text about detecting counterfeits I found on a website
Counterfeit Detection
The most common reason a coin is condemned by an expert as being a forgery is, "It doesn't look right." Dealers who've handled many thousands of authentic coins are usually (not always) able to pick out fakes, even if they're not always able to verbalize why. Part of this involves knowing what authentic coins of a particular type typically look like. Part of this involves knowing what counterfeits typically look like.
Indications of a cast counterfeit:
Soft details
Soapy surfaces
Round, mushy boundaries where the devices and legends meet the coin's field
Pitting from air bubbles created during the casting process. However, pitting may not appear if pressure, centrifugal, or vacuum casting was used. Also, genuine coins often show some pitting, or porosity, caused by corrosion, though these pits are typically rougher at their edges, wider at their openings, and less round than pits caused by casting.
If a coin has cracks in its surfaces, as ancient coins often do, the cracks will likely have smooth edges, not sharp, visible particularly under a microscope, even with centrifugal casting.
Raised lumps of metal. However, some genuine ancient coins can show the same if made from rusty dies.
A seam around the edge where the two sides of the mold joined together. However, it's often filed off, in which case file or polishing marks are sometimes visible, particularly under a microscope. On the other hand, ancient coins made from cast flans may show evidence of a casting seam.
A casting sprue, or protuberance at one point on the coin's edge. This can also be filed off, in which case file or polishing marks are sometimes visible, particularly under a microscope. As with a casting seam, ancient coins made from cast flans may show evidence of a casting sprue.
The absence of flow lines from striking, visible particularly under a microscope
Light weight (or sometimes too heavy). However, genuine ancient coins often exhibit a fairly large range of weights, more so with bronze coins than silver coins, more so with silver coins than gold coins.
The existence of the an identical coin -- not only one made from the same dies but also one with the same centering, strike (including flan cracks), wear patterns, surface damage (scratches, pits, corrosion), and patination/deposits. However, forgers may retouch molds to remove surface damage or add marks and alter patination/deposits on the cast's surface.
Slightly convex obverse and reverse. However, many genuine ancient coins exhibit the same, particularly Byzantine coins as well as those made by Celts or Thracians in imitation of Greek or Roman coins.
A harshly cleaned coin -- harsh cleaning to the point of smoothing can hide evidence of casting. However, many genuine coins have been harshly cleaned as well.
Thank you for taking the time to make a valuable contribution. I can not say enough about the people that contribute to this board, and the learning that I have gained in the last year. No matter what your specialty is, or how long you have been involved in the hobby you can always learn more in numismatics.