Can you help authenticate these gold $1?

GMan

I could use some help here. I've been told these are fake $1 gold pieces. Any help would be nice so I know what I have. Thanks!

1851-O:




And the 1852:




Thanks for any help gentlemen.

STONE

All I can tell is that these look harshly cleaned

GMan

<< <i>All I can tell is that these look harshly cleaned >>



I think that would be clear to Helen Keller, but if they are real they're still worth something over melt. I'm sick of holding on to them and want to get rid of them, but I would like to get some opinions on authenticity before I junk them for melt (which isn't much on these.) The weight appears good, so I thought I would ask here and see if anyone can help me out. Thanks.

Cladiator

I think melt on those puppies is in the $35 range, each.

AUandAG

I'd say that they are counterfeit. The crispness of the letters is lacking, mushie. Even tho they
are very worn they should be good detail in many places on these coins and there is not. My reference
for counterfeit gold does not list these two dates but I'd still say that they are fake.
bob

GMan

<< <i>I'd say that they are counterfeit. The crispness of the letters is lacking, mushie. Even tho they
are very worn they should be good detail in many places on these coins and there is not. My reference
for counterfeit gold does not list these two dates but I'd still say that they are fake.
bob >>



That's what I thought as well. I think I'm going to junk them.

RWB

They resemble cast imitations made for the jewelry trade. Look for irregularities in the edge reeding, too.

CaptHenway

My gut feeling is genuine, but heavily damaged by use in jewelry. Just worth the value of the gold as is.
TD

PerryHall

With that extreme amount of cleaning / polishing it would be impossible to authenticate these coins. They are probably real and exjewelry as previously mentioned by others.

Merc

They look like cast counterfeits.

A guy in my coin club brought in an 1881 gold $1 this week. It was a high grade uncirculated coin with prooflike fields. It lacked any obvious counterfeit markings. I thought it looked funny because the ends of the wreath overlapped. The ends do not touch in the earlier dates. The letters also had a wide base before narrowing up to form the letters. That looked strange too. I looked up several gold $1 and found the design changed for the 1880's and the ends of the wreath do touch and overlap a bit.

GMan

Edge reeding looks ok on both coins *shrug* I forgot to mention the 1851-O tests out at 22k while the 1852 tests at only 19k pure. Could be my tester as it's not perfect, but if anything the 1851 might be real, it looks crisper, but I think the 1852 is a fake copy. Who knows, I think I'll just scrap them out and forget about. Not worth the trouble to me. Like you all said, the condition is terrible anyway.