question about $20 saint

heavyd4848 · February 25, 2009 4:40AM

my friend has a 1927 saint that looks very nice. however. it has 2 small brownish spots on the rim.i told him i was unsure if that was common or if he has a fake coin. any ideas?

adamlaneus · February 25, 2009 4:43AM

Brownish "copper" spots can happen on fake coins as well as genuine coins.

Sometimes, one can tell a counterfeit from a real coin through pictures. But sometimes not; only Bad counterfeits are usually discernable through photos. And even then, opinions you get over the internet are not conclusive and sometimes in conflict.

Sometimes weighing the coin can determine a counterfeit if the coin is underweight.

If you want to be certain that the coin is real, the best thing to do is to submit it to a Third Party Grader. One such Third Party Grader is PCGS.

heavyd4848 · February 25, 2009 4:45AM

i weighed it and it weighed like it should.he says he's gonna send it to pcgs.

PerryHall · February 25, 2009 5:25AM

Most counterfeit gold coins have the proper weight and fineness of gold so weighing a coin is not conclusive that the coin is authentic. As far as copper spots, I've seen many counterfeit gold coins and not one coin had a copper spot.

roadrunner · February 25, 2009 3:06PM

Brown, black, and copper spots are all pretty common on Saints.

If the coin has plenty of signs of die polish, or die cracks, and crisp detail, more than likely the coin is good. A total absence of die polish is a warning sign. A lot of the fakes show tooling marks or raised areas (bag marks or cuts on the trial coin).

roadrunner

PerryHall · February 25, 2009 8:21PM

<< <i>Brown, black, and copper spots are all pretty common on Saints.

If the coin has plenty of signs of die polish, or die cracks, and crisp detail, more than likely the coin is good. A total absence of die polish is a warning sign. A lot of the fakes show tooling marks or raised areas (bag marks or cuts on the trial coin).

roadrunner >>

If the genuine coin used as a model to create the counterfeit die has bag marks, the counterfeit coins produced by this die will show the same bag marks. On a genuine coin, the bag marks will be shiney or at least have a different texture compared to the rest of the coin while the bag marks on the counterfeit coin will have the same texture as the surrounding surface area of the coin. If you see a coin where the bag marks have the same texture as the adjacent surface of the coin, the coin is probably a fake.

question about $20 saint

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