Suspicious Silver Coins

Thanks Dave. Glad to know it look fine to you; I can't wait for that particular coin to arrive -it will be my first barber half-.

found something else on the edge of the Morgan dollar that might or might no be significant:



And I also found in my collection this Liberty Half Dollar with this strange surface. What's even more strange is that the worn parts of the figure show the exact same surface as the field, when they should have the typical worn surface. The rest is fine: it's silver and the measurements are right.



Oh, I also found another coin in my collection that's puzzling me. It's a 2009 1 Oz silver eagle, but this one is not like the rest; it has a frosted finish all over the coin. I checked to see if could find any mention of full frosted silver eagles, but I couldn't find anything; just the regular proofs with frosted figures and mirror fields. Has anyone ever heard of a coin like this?

Anyone?



Is this rim characteristic of fake coins, like this counterfeit Morgan dollar, or can you also find it in authentic coins?

I'm asking because lately I'm seeing more of these coins with this sort of double border on the rim, and many of those coins usually also have a different look than the ones with the smooth rim below (i.e. they look too clean for their age, and often come without tonning).

Thanks Dave,

That was an example of a fake Morgan dollar that I found on the internet; on which I noticed this irregularity on the rim.

Here is an example in one of my coins; it's a French Silver 2 Francs coins from 1915, and as you can see it also has this double border on the rim.



The case is, I find many of these French franks with this double rim, and I noticed that those without tonning and most of its lustre show this kind of rim; everything else is right (weight, measures, etc).

I have other coins with this feature from other countries; all common silver coins -nothing special about them, common unexpensive years; just of a rather high grade.

Glad to hear that Dave. For a moment, when I saw that rim on that fake Morgan dollar I began to fear it could be a feature of those new chinese copies that everyone talks about.

Now that I saw how this guy spotted this fake Morgan dollar (by looking at the legends and comparing details), I took a closer look at the one that I posted last week -the one that was a bit shorter than 38mm- and I noticed this by comparing them in Photoshop:

This is a close up of the reverse of the suspected one:



And this is another close up of another Morgan dollar (one from 1921):



If you compare the tips of the arrows, they are different: the first ones are longer and narrower, while the second ones are shorter and wider. Also, the space between the leg and the tail are different in both coins.

I also noticed other small difference, like the distance between the legend "In God we trust" and the wing...





Could this be a different die; taking into account that the first coin is from 1896 and the second from 1921 (though both from Philadephia)?

1921 used an entirely different design. As you've noticed.

By then, all the original Morgan dies had been destroyed; they had to start fresh.

Unfortunately, not quite.

During the first year of mintage, 1878, you'll find three different obverse and reverse designs used. The differences are minor, but the attention to detail you've displayed here means you'll see them. Some of the earlier designs were used in 1879 and 1880 at various of the mints; following that, the final designs continued with only the slightest of changes through 1904.