Unpeeling an 1847 counterfeit Eagle.
RogerB
Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
The following are excerpts from a lengthy US Mint report of 1860 on counterfeit gold coins. These describe the dissection of a gold coin with the interior machined out and replaced with a platinum disc.
"On inspection by the eye the piece appeared too fresh and clean for the age of thirteen years, unless, as is the case with some, it had lain quietly in a vault. No seams were visible, with the aid of a magnifier, and indeed, the joints were so completely united that no action was produced by strong and hot nitric acid, and even a continued boiling in it.
… We were now ready to resolve all doubt by carefully laying open the interior of the coin. It was cut slightly with a chisel on each side, and then broken off; thus the gold was not driven down in over the face of the fracture. This exposed to view a thick plate of gray metal, extending nearly to the edges, and of uniform thickness. There was now opportunity for the action of nitric acid upon the solder; but the adhesion of the gray plate to the gold was quite obstinate. However, the parts were entirely separated; and consisted of two exterior plates of gold, bearing the stamps; an interior plate of platinum; a squared collar of gold which bore the ribbed edge; and an alloy of silver and copper with a little zinc, used for soldering. In all, five component parts and five layers[?].
...The thickness of the entire piece, inside of the border (which is raised above the whole impression to protect it from wear) was the same as observed in genuine pieces: 54 to 58 thousandths of an inch, averaging about 56. This was allotted as follows:
The two gold surfaces, each 12-1/2 thous. 25
The platinum 27
The solder, two surface, each 2 (estimated) 4
[Total] 56
The depth of the gold band was 25 thousandths, sufficient to hide the platinum from a deep file cut. The various metals gave the following weights:
The two gold plates, 100.8 grains, and the gold band, 11.5, total of gold 112.5
The platinum 131.1
The solder (after recovery from solution) 12.2
Loss 0.95
The gray plate was found to be pure platinum: viz., specific gravity was 21.40.
...The soldering matter was found to consist of the usual proportions of silver solder; in round figures, silver constituted six-tenths, copper three-tenths, zinc one-tenth. In making the description of solder, brass is added; and this accounts for the zinc and some of the copper."
Comments
So was it a genuine coin hollowed out and adulterated with a platinum disc, or a platinum cored gold disc struck with counterfeit dies?
Hollowed genuine coin.
I purchased a large foreign gold coin around 15-years ago that had also been hollowed out by drilling inward from the rims and was then re-filled. I gave it to my brother.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Great info. Thanks!
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Without actually saying it in the report, I get the feeling that the investigators were impressed with the offenders quality of work.
I'm equally impressed with the detail of their findings.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
There's more detail in the full report, but it's 65 pages.... Maybe I'll publish it some day.
Please do! Maybe scan some pages?
I have it digitized, but it has to be transcribed for modern readers - it's all cursive.
Us old farts were taught cursive back in the one-room schoolhouse!
Yeah -- but now, if you can't type with your thumbs, you have to go out and bring in the wood for the school stove. Heck, way back then, us young'uns had to cut firewood for the school marm's cabin as part of her pay, plus two chickens a month.
Two chickens per pupil or for the whole class? One seems not enough and the other too much.
The platinum core is fascinating. Such skill in a low tech era makes one shudder thinking about today's fakers.
Reading cursive today is one thing, but cursive (and word patterns) from 150 years ago, ouch. Even so, more would be interesting.
Two chickens per pupil per month, plus other food items, cloth, firewood, horse feed and tack, etc. Add $100 in cash per year salary.