1886 O Morgan Dollar - Real Or Fake?

There're two things about it visually that are suspicious. First, the "6" in the date looks to be sitting a bit high. More concerning is how much lower in grade the reverse appears to be than the obverse. That can be an indicator of a counterfeit.

The weight being where it ought to be suggests it's genuine, but Chinese fakes can nowadays be ordered up in the correct composition. But at $24, it seems to be the worst that might've happened here was that you bought a little silver at 2X spot.

Looks legitimate to me.

So, tell me. Where does one measure the thickness of a Morgan? And what thickness dimension is appropriate, and what is the tolerance for error? I don't know much about Morgans, and thickness as a viable authentication test is new to me.

I remember a thread a while back where the OP's Morgan had the correct weight and outside diameter but the thickness was over I'm guessing to compensate for the use of a less dense material. I'm pretty sure it was one of those crude castings though.(but not positive)

Sorry, I was not referring to you @edteach. I'm not sure who posted the Morgan I'm thinking of but it was a year or so back.

I stopped by a local coin shop that is well respected, Westchester gold and diamond in Port Charlotte. I told them I wanted a morgan that was a good real example that has no chance of being a fake. I bought an 1885 O for 35 dollars in VF condition. It weighs 26.7g and is the same diameter and within a couple of .00mm of 2.4 as my others are. I used to collect old German medals and Soviet medals from WW2. My grandfather started me off with some of his bring backs. I quit for two reasons, one is people who are not historical minded think your trying to revive the third Reich ad the second is that it was getting hard to judge the fakes from the real medals. On one forum we had a guy go so far as to send in paint samples from what was thought to be real medals to get them spectral analized and Electron scanned. I had bought a Knights cross of the iron cross for 5500, made by 4 or Steinhur and luck and the collecting community was down to if the die cracks are like this its pre war, if its like this its post war. [the dies survived the war] I sold it before the thinking changed and my medal went from 5500 to 25 dollars. I am getting that feeling from Morgan and Peace dollars. I was even told today by Westchester that they don't buy panda silver. its too risky. I buy from JM Bullion, they don't even buy back silver and gold, and they get it from the mint. I hope I am not getting back into a crazy situation where every thing is suspect. Darn Chinese.

At the rim. You can actually just hold a coin in question next to a confirmed authentic example and see the difference.