Counterfeit 1854 Huge O Liberty Seated Quarter

Continuing to finalize research articles on silver coinage casualties of the latest wave of deceptive counterfeits I move to another key “variety”, the Liberty Seated 1854 Huge O quarter.

Like the 1927-S this variety was included in our initial Coin Week article From the Brink to the Dark Side and also started with the purchase of a damaged genuine coin that was repaired and used to make the counterfeit dies. And like others in this series the repairs were accomplished with apparent skill until compared to images of known genuine examples, and then the affected details betray the efforts of the counterfeiters; if there were but one known example it could simply look like a repaired and tooled genuine coin, but when we can document more than one with the same key differences plus additional “circulation marks” we know we are on the trail of the counterfeits!

The original “discovery example” is still in the TPG holder as seen in the images and was initially considered suspicious at best due to the seller’s reputation, and warranted additional review; the holder’s label accurately described the coin as tooled and comparison images between it and a known genuine example show the extent of the effort.

Following images show my example on the left as compared to a genuine example (images courtesy PCGS); red circle indicate differences between them:

In keeping with several of the "coins" researched in this series the areas of damage and repair suggest a probable hole repair!

And as has happened in previous researched varieties the second suspect example appeared in a few days of internet searching; having images of the damaged and repaired example certainly helped to focus the search...

This example was TPG slabbed and shown as being sold at auction in Apr of 2014; comparison images show the common areas of damage as well as common identifying circulation marks ("sister marks") between these two (again, mine on the left; white circles indicate common marks):

So, at this point we have only matched the original source coin with the apparent repaired example, so technically no counterfeit here (although the purists might argue the point!).

From here the search was on for additional examples, and initially focusing on known "bad" internet sellers three additional examples turned up (the 2nd TPG reviewed example showed up in an unexpected place, but that's another story).

The following images show comparisons of these 3.

Matching sister marks and repaired areas noted in white circles; as with the others previously researched and reviewed the main attribution marks match exactly from the source coin to each of the struck clones.

As always we can all draw our own conclusions about what is real or what is “Memorex”, but I am convinced more than one of these is counterfeit! I would ask that the readers be on the look-out for other duplicate examples and REPORT them; with only 3 examples known to date beyond the possible source coin the chance is high there are more “out there”!

As always, the research continues to be a collaborative effort with many EAC members and “Dark Side” friends participating.
Completed article can be viewed on Coin Week at https://coinweek.com/counterfeits/struck-counterfeit-coins-1854-huge-o-liberty-seated-quarter-1-page-attribution-guide/

Best regards,

Jack