1838 Contemporary Counterfeit Half Dollar
23Pairer
Posts: 911 ✭✭✭
A friend of mine owns a local coin shop, and he knows my interest in Bust Half Dollars. He gave this coin to me, so I thought I would share. According to Keith Davignon's book "Contemporary Counterfeit Capped Bust Half Dollars", First Edition, looks like the most common of all the counterfeits, but I still marvel at the effort put in to this, and wish I could hear the comments as it passed hand to hand in commerce. The book is fascinating, and I am now the proud owner of 2 pieces. Bob
4
Comments
I think they're fascinating. Counterfeits made for commerce, not to fool collectors. The deceit only had to work once for the forgerer to benefit.
Here's another from that same rapscallion.
Lance.
Counterfeiters were a little behind the times in keeping up with the Mint (which moved on to Seated Halves in 1839). I have no doubt the public was just as confused and very likely accepted these.
I'll bet the hilarious 1878 and 1787 flowing hair bust halves were also successes.
Lance.
Cool !!!
Those are amazing!!
Counterfeits are an interesting field of collecting... I have a couple that I picked up along the way (knowing they were counterfeit). Cheers, RickO
Some of those are just laughable.
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Laughable, yes. Passable yes. Successful yes. (but) the guy made his money the first time he spent it (like was said earlier).
Pete
I have handled one of the 1787's, but never the 1878.
TD
Great looking halves, Lance. Thanks for sharing those.
Not always, now that the 100 year statute of limitations on discussing family members(an ancestor no less) has passed I might sometime share a story about a "private mint" and the unusual way the perp got caught, convicted and then acquitted a year later.
Please do! Sounds so interesting.
Great pieces, and fun to collect
BHNC #203
What an interesting thread. I'd also like to hear your story SaorAlba.
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Some observations:
1) I think it's more amazing at how many contemporary counterfeits are still being sold as 'real' coins by coin dealers.
2) I find it amazing that what we experienced numismatists call super crude contemporary counterfeits are still being sold by non-numismatists as genuine coins. It goes to show that if you really don't know what a coin is supposed to look like, then quality doesn't necessarily matter until someone who knows what coins look like actually identifies the piece as bad/counterfeit. What I've found in my research is that a lot of 19th century immigrant communities (and immigrants) living in the U.S., who were living in cities, subsequently where a lot of this counterfeiting was taking place, were most affected by handling (usually receiving) these counterfeits unknowingly and then passing them on to other people (both parties not necessarily knowing the coins were counterfeit), until someone was eventually caught and convicted. Laws eventually evolved to state that if there was 'intent to defraud' you would be convicted, otherwise if you were unaware as to the coins authenticity you could get off without a conviction.
3) Finally, the dates on most counterfeits didn't matter too much. This is a minor detail, usually only reserved for the counterfeiter to pay attention to so they could skirt around counterfeiting laws. Therefore, fantasy-dated pieces, like the 1787 and 1878 FH Halves, were likely made on purpose (although the 1878 was likely a die sinking error).
More to come in my research and eventual books on this subject...!