Counterfeit Detection: 1926-S Buffalo Nickel

Wow! That takes some dedication.

Albums and slabs can also be used to hide concoctions like this. Back in the late 1950's, the 1950-D Jefferson nickels were selling for $25 or so, apiece. I have an example of a 1950 MS nickel that was planed down and glued to a contemporary D-mint reverse. Unless a buyer pulled the coin from an album/holder and examined the edge, it would easily fool a buyer.

Really scary!

This is something easy to see with the coin in hand, but in the era of all-online sales due to COVID, the risk increases dramatically. Add basement slabbers in the mix, and it may not be possible to inspect the edge until it is too late.

Coins with extensive die marriage studies have some level of protection. For example, any VAM mule is automatically on the no-fly list. Buffs, however, do not have that level of study, and are at risk. Making it worse, there are only two San Francisco mm varieties: a small "S" with a die chip in the top curl (1917 and earlier) and a larger "S" beginning in 1918. This type of clamshell fake could have been caught say for a 1913-S Type II with a post-1917 mm, but not from pics alone for a coin with proper mm style.

I have to admit that with 45+ years dealing with Buffs, I would not have caught this fake from obverse and reverse pics. In hand? Yes. Obscured in a slab? No.

This one makes me concerned. It's darned good.

Impressive effort by that counterfeiter. Indeed very concerning as it would have fooled many of us, myself included

@ jbuck .... When I corrected my typo, I neglected to make it COINcoctions!

Even better!

to the Community, element47!

(I like the silver reference!)

It is such a shame that we as collectors have to consider everything fake until we can prove otherwise. No doubt that counterfeiting even occurred in ancient times but the amount of them in the marketplace today takes a lot of enjoyment out of the hobby. I suppose it can be rewarding to one's self however in honing your abilities to detect such garbage. Only hope is that you don't make a costly mistake. While TPG's may be the way to go for key dates and high dollar coins, even this is no guarantee since slabs are now a target too. Just my opinion.