Lovely new $10 1895-S! Sadly it's bogus.
Jinx86
Posts: 3,719 ✭✭✭✭✭
I kind of like finding these, so that they can be melted.
One of the more deceptive pieces I've seen recently. Tests good with standard methods, that only means it has the correct gold content. The sandy overall appearance gives it away. The soft dentils and wing tips and the die polish/scratches.
Enjoy!
2
Comments
Check out that "F" in OF
Educational.
.
Co-worker ended up buying it for melt. He's gonna make a ring out of it. I know a few people who have done this with fake good coins. Great way to have the look of a coin without destroying the real thing.
Put this in one eye and forget it....
This type of counterfeit with "wild tool marks" was around in the 1970's. By the 1980's none this crude were being made. However, back then, the surfaces were not this granular so I suspect it is a "modern" fake copied after using the old time dies as a model. If it is truly 90% gold, that pins it down as modern because the old fakes did not have the correct alloy.
The one thing I hate about coin collecting is fakes.
Heartbreaking !!!
On the bright side with premiums being so low, there was no real downside to owning this as bullion compared to a real numis piece. The customer had bought this for $200 back in the day, paying quite a premium for it. Today he received xx% of melt, which is the about the same as I would pay for an problem $10 coming in over the counter. Sadly I don't think premiums are coming back to numis gold for quite some time.
I used XX for a % just to protect myself from those saying I paid too little or too much..
XX% is way too much!
Successful BST deals with mustangt and jesbroken. Now EVERYTHING is for sale.
Appears too little to me.
If it is needed gold, I guess it is worth melt. Just bullion now minus a tad for being a counterfeit.
Always be vigilant... no matter what.
i bought a counterfeit 1895P abroad about 20 years ago. I was suspicious of course and it had the correct weight and was prooflike. The seller wanted bullion price and I figured wth, I will roll the dice with a long shot that I figured might possibly be an impaired proof, less than $200 at that time. Well snake eyes came up and I sold it for bullion for the same money. I wish I would have kept it for a conversion piece, if mothing else, as it was well made and attractive. I didn't know enough at the time to check it out for the infamous Omega signature.
Thanks for the pictures, that certainly helps collectors that want to add gold pieces. Very risky to buy raw gold these days...and the lucky one's get fake coins but real bullion...some will not get the gold. Cheers, RickO
Shame that its being destroyed/melted. It could be a nice educational piece to show some characteristics of a counterfeit gold coin. If worried, your friend could always stamp the reverse to indicate it isn't a genuine example...
Trust me, there are plenty more of these out there. I did my best with the images, to show some of the tells as best I could. It's expensive to hold counterfeit gold as a shop. Maybe I'll have him bring it to the ANA next month...
It is good for collectors to get a close-up look at a counterfeit coin like this. It might be the quality of a by gone era of counterfeits, but it gets collectors into the habit of looking at their purchases more closely and shows them counterfeit anomalies on a basic level.
No one, not even the best authenticators, started has “instant experts.”
wow, easy marker
BHNC #203
Sure would have fooled me.
A very good fake, and a very deceptive one... A great educational tool.