1895 No Mint Mark, Opinions Please

May be an 1885 with the date altered. After a 2nd look, I'm pretty sure that is what it is.

Can't tell, looks legit to me, but that's why I'm here, so I won't be duped by something like this in the future.

If it's not going for much (like around $20), you might want to get this for educational purposes (if it is legal to own an unmarked fake).

Wow. Dansco actually has a slot in the circulation strike album for a non-existent coin. LOL.

...and before anyone gets upset by my saying non-existent, here is why I say it. I was doing some reading in the recent past:

In those days of the U.S. Mint, it was common for collectors to request specific coins and dates of them from the mints. This went for proofs and business strikes. The mint would oblige willingly IF they were available. A numismatist by the name of Henry Hettger tracked down the requests for 1895-P business strikes. The requests were all returned to the requesters unfulfilled. If there were 12,000 1895-P business strikes in existence, they would be now be around in populations somewhat similar to the 1930-S, 1931, 1931-D and 1932 Double Eagles and perhaps a few more. They are not. The 1895-P did not exist and thus requests were returned. The 12,000 entry in the books was an entry to rectify the coining of 1894-P's, no doubt.

To give you an idea of it, if I had a time machine I could go back to the summer of 1932 and actually order 1927-D Double Eagles from the mint. They were listed as available coins via mint correspondence in 1932. You can see where I'm heading first if I ever get my hands on such a machine.

Private mints make great rare date hole fillers that will actually fit, fuzzy. I don't have a Dansco for my Morgan collection, but if I did I would do that to have the silver look.

Lol. That it does. Sanding it down must have been a pain.

I can't stand empty holes either. I once bought a new album for my flying eagle / indian heads cause the one I had was falling apart....and when I got it home and opened I saw they had a slot for the 1856 flying eagle. I took the book back and bought a different one knowing I couldn't live without having that hole filled. Good fix for the empty slot Fuzzy~!! 3 to go and I can retire that book.

I handled a coin just like this back around 1997. It was in the possession of an eccentric dealer from Williamsport ,Pa. After being given permission by him to examine the coin with high power magnification, it was determined to have an altered date. The final date digit of a Philadelphia strike from another year(most likely 1890) had been expertly replaced with a 5 of the proper font. No official Mint documents exist to confirm the striking of 1895 dated circulation coins, and none have ever been authenticated. The coin I handled was inspected also by Michael Faraone (ANACS at the time)and David Lange(NGC)at the 1997 ANA Convention. They concurred that it was an altered date.