Anyone know about contemporary counterfeits from the teens-30's? US

UconnL · February 20, 2011 4:04AM

I know that folks collect collect these...A group of them were in an old canvas bag that came with a group of LG Size notes that I bought from a family that owned a grocery store from 1919-1940...
Anyone know about the value??

Thanks! Larry

RWB · February 20, 2011 4:30AM

Casting was a common method of producing counterfeits; however, some criminal operations had small presses and turned out large quantities of fakes.

Your photos (from a storekeeper's hoard, I think you said) would be very useful in part of a book I am working on. The buffalo, 1938 Washington and one of the better WL halves would be interesting illustrations.

I can provide appropriate photo credit in the book, samples of the final page layout, etc. PM me if interested.

UconnL · February 20, 2011 4:41AM

Great!!!

Larry.

savoyspecial · February 20, 2011 4:44AM

you should PM Roger

i highly discourage you to post a phone number on a public chat forum

UconnL · February 20, 2011 5:06AM

THANKS!!!!
Hit the wrong button!

ambro51 · February 20, 2011 5:14AM

I see some heavy digs on the obverses...where they 'testing marks'? Also, do you see any bitemarks? Are these lead, or a more pewterlike allloy.

Interesting stuff for sure. How much real circulation wear is on these?

GoldenEyeNumismatics · February 20, 2011 5:16AM

As part of my job last summer I went through about $20k face of 90%. By the time I was done, I had literally pulled out rolls worth of cast counterfeits. Cool stuff!

PerryHall · February 20, 2011 5:16AM

Most were probably made during the great depression---very desperate times.

STONE · February 20, 2011 5:29AM

These are generally lead, lead-nickel, nickel, and other minor metal alloyed counterfeits.
They are fairly common and don't demand too much of a premium (From experience, $5-15 is a fairly typical price range per piece).
Some look MUCH better than others, and the ones you are showing are rather nice.
Nice Buffalo Nickel counterfeits are tougher to find than the Barber and Walker Halves.

Nice group you have there Larry

UconnL · February 20, 2011 6:27AM

Thank you for the update...

UconnL · February 20, 2011 6:35AM

That was when most were used...
The store was open during those tough times...

A 50 cent piece in 1933
today buys $8.43 in goods...

But why counterfeit a Nickle?

Larry

STONE · February 20, 2011 6:52AM

Larry, I've seen counterfeits of every US denomination with the exception of the 2c piece.

The nickel had quite a bit of buying power in those days, such as a hotdog, loaf of bread, etc.
A lower denomination is less suspect to counterfeit inspection than a larger denomination and could be passed by with relative ease.
The less likely scenario is that due to the large number of problems manufacturing Buffalo Nickels (i.e. planchet laminations), crude
counterfeit Buffalo Nickels may have been able to change hands with little notice.

There's several other reasons for counterfeiting smaller change, but the above are two common ideas

koynekwest · February 20, 2011 7:08AM

The so-called "two legged" Buffalo nickels of 1935 and 1936 mentioned in the old Spadone guides on error/variety coins are contemporary counterfeits-rather poorly made but of a correct or nearly correct alloy and with an appearance of being die struck. These are quite rare by the way.

UconnL · February 20, 2011 7:23AM

Thank you to all of you!
This is so incredibly interesting!
I will also share this with my students at MSU, we just finished a section on the Banking Holiday of 1933
compared to our current crisis...

Larry

http://www.bos.frb.org/about/pubs/closed.pdf Text

Click on the text...

rld14 · February 20, 2011 10:40AM

I have what's actually a decent accumulation of these and I do like them.

One thing to bear in mind... BE VERY CAREFUL HANDLING THESE COUNTERFEITS! It's important to remember that a lot of these are lead with Mercury used to "silver" them, this is pretty nasty stuff and you don't want to get Mercury into your system.

That being said.. think I have close to 20 fake Barber Halves and a handful of fake SLQs, some Walkers and even a fake 3 cent piece that's holed! Picked that up last week from my local B&M.

Roger, I'd love to see your book.. I can send you a list of what I have and will be happy to have said coins imaged for you.

Bill

MrEureka · February 20, 2011 12:41PM

A good rule of thumb is that the cast counterfeits are worth very little and the struck pieces (of which you appear to have none) can be quite valuable. For struck pieces, a good rule of thumb is that the goofier the die work, the better. A great contemporary counterfeit often looks like a folk art version of the real thing.

MrEureka · February 20, 2011 12:42PM

BTW, are you sure the 1936 half and 1936 quarter are fake?

UconnL · February 20, 2011 1:12PM

Thanks for the update on the "silver" I think that I'll put on gloves and put these into paper holders...
Most appreciated! Larry

UconnL · February 20, 2011 1:14PM

Andy, hello and how's the "puppy?"
Yes the coins are all period fakes 1920's- 1940's...

Larry

cladking · February 20, 2011 2:50PM

All the ones I've seen are pretty poor quality and often lead. Most were probably passed
where a lot of money was changing hands so they wouldn't be noticed. Like yours they
are often lead and damaged by someone checking to see if they are lead.

The depression does seem to be a sort of focal point for the origin of many of them and
few are dated later.

UconnL · February 20, 2011 10:52PM

Agreed...

Assuming that the purchasing power of .50 in 1933 was $8.45 today... You could feed your family for a day if you were judicial with grocery purchases... Larry

Anyone know about contemporary counterfeits from the teens-30's? US

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