Is this 1847 Hawaii Cent genuine ?
thebeav
Posts: 3,921 ✭✭✭✭✭
Hi Folks. Any Hawaiian collectors out there?
I bought this years ago. It's a little grainy and a tad heavy at 9.3 grams. I know there are quite a few varieties.
Does this look good to you ? Thanks.....
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I am of the view its one of the many souvenir pieces produced. Many were not marked as such. It was initially plated base metal is my assumption.
I agree with @SamByrd. Here's a real one in MS65BN (H/T CoinFacts). Even accounting for wear, some things just don't quite look right, like the date and the wreath stems. Look at the leaf next to the first U in AUPUNI on the back. See how on yours the leaf "points" to the left of the berry above it? Now look at the MS65BN example... the leaf points right to the berry. There are quite a few subtle differences in the wreaths with berry/leaf placement relative to the legend, and a big difference in the relative positions of HAPA with HANERI.
I am no expert but I don't like it (except as a copy to have as a novelty). The portrait does not seem to have the same details, even accounting for wear.
Thanks for the input guys.
Just playing 'devils advocate' mvs, here's an MS64 Br sold by Heritage a few years ago. The same reverse as mine.
@thebeav - I stand corrected on the reverse... I guess there are multiple reverse varieties.
I'll still stand by the conclusion, though. It just looks off, even accounting for wear. I lived in Hawaii for high school and for eight years after college and saw a lot of both real and repro pieces at B&Ms and shows. The repros are literally everywhere in Waikiki and Ala Moana Shopping Center.
Thanks for the input guys. I appreciate it !
Sadly that B&M Coin shop in the Ala Moana Shopping Center (to which I assume you refer) is no longer - at least at that location. Guessing it has been gone for at least a dozen years now. There is a coin shop though in downtown Honolulu on Bishop Street. I see it has mixed reviews, but when I stopped in there last year looking for a Captain Cook Commemorative they were helpful noting that they didn't have one of adequate quality to recommend.
Funky stuff going on with the metal.
Just by chance, I have a genuine example for sale on the BST forum.
I remember Ala Moana S&C fondly from my high school days in the mid 1980s. Ala Moana was the bus transfer depot for my ride home, and if I timed it right I could spend about 20-30 minutes looking around in there after school. The owner's college-age daughter would sit there, chat with you, and pull out stuff from cases when you asked, so pretty much the perfect setup for a high-school aged male coin collector
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The Bishop Street store, Hawaiian Islands S&C, was a good store even back then... used to be the Medcalf's store (the author of the light blue Hawaiian money reference book), though I don't know if it still is.
My favorite store on Oahu, though, was Windward Coin, a small hole in the wall in Kailua. The owner was an old timer, I think his name was Don, and he used to take want lists and replenish his inventory at the mainland shows. He unfortunately passed in the early 1990s I think, and the store closed pretty quickly after that, though his kids tried to keep it going for a while.