Got my first lesson in counterfeit trade dollars today!

CarsonCityGold

I went to the Ft Worth show today and had decided to branch out a little and look for Carson City Seated Liberty and trade Dollars. All I knew was that there are a ton of fake Trades out there and I spent about an hour reading up on them. I stopped at a fairly well known local dealers table who I had done a few deals with before. He had a 75 and 76 CC Trade dollars raw in his case. After looking at them with a 10X loop, I said "You know, I don't know a thing about trade dollars, except that there are a ton of fakes out there." He said " I'll don't know much either, but I'll stand behind those 100%." These coins looked to be around XF40 or 45's and the fields looked to have raised lines in them (big clue). I asked if he had weighed them. He said "No, what are they supposed to weigh?" I said a little over 27 grams. Long story short, I weighed them and they weighed 21.3 grams. He seemed shocked and pulled them off his table. Main thing it taught me - I'll NEVER buy raw - especially off of Ebay. You could probably not have been able to tell from a scan. When I was talking to another dealer about CC Trade dollars, he reached in his briefcase and threw one down on the table and says " Its counterfeit, but do you see anything unusual about it?" It was an 1882 CC Trade Dollar. Here's a hint- they didn't make any 1882 CC Trade dollars. Had fun and learned a lot! Later, CCG

DNADave

You learned the right way. Too many learn after its too late. Good job.

Mikey

Good for you, I hope the dealer thanked you for the information.

WACoinGuy

The real question is, did you swing around the dealer's table later in the day and were the counterfeits still not in the display case?

CarsonCityGold

I agree, that's the real question. How could a dealer miss what I figured out with very little examining? I must admit, it bothered me, even though he said I'll back them 100%. What's he got to lose, if he offers a 100% buy-back? So if he sells them,maybe they stay sold and maybe they don't. I didn't check back later. I'll check at the next show. He sets up at most in this area.

airplanenut

Not buying raw is the wrong response, IMO... not buying rare coins/key dates raw is ok, as is not buying high-grade stuff if you don't trust your eye or there is a big spread from one grade to the next... even then, it's important to trust your eye enough to agree with, or disagree with, the slabbed grade. Of course, plenty of other coins can easily, and safely, be had raw.

Jeremy

tradedollarnut

Wrong answer. Don't buy raw trade dollars.... period! The fakes are too good.