Holy smokes! 1855 "$1 gold"--your thoughts please

Mercfan

Here's something one doesn't see every day. I'd appreciate very much the thoughts of those of you who know something about such items as this.







Thanks in advance for any edifying comments you'd care to share.

RYK

Crude counterfeit

Hyperion

ryk beat me, it's very odd looking...

messydesk

No real.

Mercfan

Thanks, guys, but the counterfeit part isn't really what I needed an answer to.

Were there a lot of these made?

Was it likely made at the time these circulated (as a counterfeit of a circulating coin), or was it likely made much later (as a counterfeit of a collectible coin)?

Who did this sort of counterfeiting?

What was the method of manufacture of this sort of counterfeit? (The lettering on the reverse looks almost as thought each letter was punched into a die separately, by hand.)

And why would they pick a year in which there were no coins minted in this series?

ttown

Tons of $1 gold coins were fake. That's why you shouldn't buy raw on Ebay unless you know what your doing.

Longacre

It looks like a fake, even to me.


And no sticker for you.

CaptHenway

Haven't seen that one before, but I would speculate that it is probably a contemporary counterfeit, possibly made during the Civil War era when genuine coinage was hard to come by and it was easier to pass counterfeits. It looks like it might be low-grade gold, perhaps 10kt though that is just a WAG.

The crude workmanship reminds me of the 1861 counterfeit 3 cents silver shown on here a few weeks ago. As to why an unlisted date, well, he didn't have a Redbook handy.

TD

fc

stopmotion may be interested in that. i am unsure if he has gold
fakes on his website )

MrEureka

I would speculate that it is probably a contemporary counterfeit, possibly made during the Civil War era when genuine coinage was hard to come by and it was easier to pass counterfeits. It looks like it might be low-grade gold, perhaps 10kt though that is just a WAG.

I agree with Tom, although I think it's unlikely that there's any gold content. Could be gold plated copper or lead or German silver or even platinum. Whatever the content, it's a desirable collectible if it is indeed a contemporary counterfeit.

Mercfan

Thanks, all, for the additional information!

I picked it up five or six years ago at an estate sale conducted in a tent in the yard of a house a block up the street from my home. I thought that I might have overpaid a bit at the time, but I was hopeful that it was at least a 19th century counterfeit rather than a 1950-produced counterfeit. Just ran across it last night and hoped that you all could help to educate me about such pieces.

It has a mass of 1.555 grams and a diameter of 13mm, which may help some of you to make a more educated guess as to what it's made of. When dropped onto the wooden desk top, it has no discernable "ring."

If it was, in fact, crafted in the mid to late 19th century, it's an interesting piece indeed!