Spark erosion counterfeit or just corrosion? 1871 IHC

nwcs · November 13, 2002 10:38AM

My bet is on spark erosion counterfeit. Any other guesses? Link

KlectorKid · November 13, 2002 10:46AM

Looks like just corrosion. like this baby link to coin

GaCoinGuy · November 13, 2002 10:48AM

I'm no expert, but a few things bother me about that coin..............

#1---The obverse is very rough, pitted looking, yet the date is crystal clear.
#2---The last 1 looks odd compared to the first 1. And the 7 looks like it's sitting on top of something, almost like a repunched date or something.
#3---On the reverse, the coin is worn pretty smooth around the wreath and the shield, yet "One Cent" seems to be very sharply struck.

I hope I'm wrong, but that coin almost look fake to me.

goose3 · November 13, 2002 10:51AM

looks fake to me too.

lettering on reverse looks very suspicious as does the date, as pointed out above.

drsvenghali · November 13, 2002 10:56AM

Either way... it's still not "attractive".

KlectorKid · November 13, 2002 10:59AM

Spark erosion counterfeit -this is a process of using an electrical spark across a small gap to transfer a design from a genuine coin to a steel die. After the die is polished, the fake coins struck from the die will show a granular appearance with some loss of detail on the coin's relief, which was incuse on the die. These counterfeits, most often seen of "keys" such as the 1909-S-VDB and 1955 double die Lincoln Cents, can be very deceptive. Detection can sometimes be made based on fine details, such as die polish lines, that are known to be present on the original die(s) but did not transfer to the spark erosion die. the date looks bold but it would look warn if it were a counterfeit to.

nwcs · November 13, 2002 11:01AM

Could it have been a tooled date? I've seen some examples of spark erosion that looked like this. Some are probably good, but many are quite pebbly in the examples I saw.

coppercoins · November 13, 2002 11:06AM

I'm with the bet on spark erosion. Too many things just don't look "right".

Lakesammman · November 13, 2002 11:28AM

Reminds me of a hospital visit...

"You look surprisingly well considering the condition your in".....agree it looks "unreal".

GaCoinGuy · November 13, 2002 11:33AM

Thanks for the explanation of the spark erosion counterfeiting....I've never heard of that.

Spark erosion counterfeit or just corrosion? 1871 IHC

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