Moral Question - Counterfeit Silver Dollars

tjkillian

I do Civil War reenacting and one of my buddies brings counterfeit Confederate paper money to the reenactments to show everyone. As we know, specie was the form of money in the U.S.A. prior to the war. My in-laws went to Shanghai in commie China and bought me a boat load of counterfeit Seated Liberty Dollars that I ask them to buy. They were less than a dollar each and look cool. Would it be kosher to give them to the little kids to show them what silver dollars looked like back then? Should I be concerned that they might get in the coin channel and someone might be taken in by them? Or would it be no different the counterfeit Confederate paper money?

Tom

ss350camaro

I think if you hard stamped COPY on them it would be ok ?

Something to identify them as not the real deal.

EagleEye

fake Conferderate notes are much different than counterfeit US coinage. That said, I think for personal use, (poker chips) they would be fun and interesting to use. But don't try and sell them.

mgoodm3

Would be cool poker chips. Good idea.

billboat

Poker chips or key chain ornaments--I like the idea of stamping "copy" on them--PM on the way.

morgannut2

A stamp attempt broke one of mine. Try a cheapo electric etcher from Home Depot, and put your social security # on your home sterio etc. with it at the same time.

Conder101

As long as you clearly and permanently mark them I see nothing wrong with handing them out.

And I disagree with eagleeye about the fake canfederate currency. That is almost as bad. There are a tremendous number of fakes out there either being sold as real or at least wasting a lot of dealers time trying to explain to people that thier family heirlooms that have been passed down for generations from their great great great grandfather who fought at Gettysburg, was actually sold as a souvineer at a battlefield tourist trap in the mid 1960's.

Weiss

You're going to give some metal detectorist a heart attack

It's a generous idea and pretty neat, but I'm not a fan of counterfiets.

It's a little late for it now, but I just searched on 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863 indians on eBay and found several dozen have ended in the last few days for less than $2 each. A genuine coin from the era would allow them to hold the history in their hands, and might create the next generation of coin collectors.