Is this Japanese 1876 trade dollar real?
ElmerFusterpuck
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I know this question is asking to base a judgement on pictures, but are there obvious places to look to see if this is genuine or a copy? A coworker brought this coin to me from a friend from India, so it has been around. In hand, the surfaces are slightly prooflike and the are hairlines in the fields from a previous cleaning. It appears to be very well struck.
10-4,
Erik
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As I always say, the first thing to do is weigh it.
That won't prove authenticity, but it will rule out a bunch of counterfeits. Why waste time if the weight is off?
Finally found a scale, but it doesn't go down to tenths and 100ths, but it did say 27 grams. The specs online do say 27.22 so it is within range.
10-4,
My Instagram picturesErik
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And you did check a magnet, right?
I'm no expert on these, but I don't like that the denticles and the beads aren't uniform enough. And the central circle of the chrysanthemum isn't quite round. Looks off to me.
I thought it looked real...but what do I know.
is that you end up being governed by inferiors. – Plato
Can you get a diameter? Should be 38.58 mm, which is oddly precise (the first 1 yen coins were also 38.58, but they were modified to 38.6 by the time the trade dollar was minted). Even cleaned those can be pretty desirable.
Looks a lot better than this one:
ebay.com/itm/Japan-1874-meiji-Y7-Trade-sliver-coins-/162332051550?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&nma=true&si=BTMWFQa50tKqsE%252FJ3ygMSk7eO4s%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc
Jap coins are pretty precise in weight and diameter. I bought one that looks good but the weight is off to 29.96 and the diameter is smaller than it should be. So I think the one I bought is fake.