Fake Trade Dollars That Look Real

Guaranteed authentic but no return. then what good is the guarantee?

I guess everyone agreed because they didnt sell, had those coins been legit and slabbed to prove so they would have went for a pretty good bit. I think more and more people are not buying Trade dollars anymore unless they are slabbed by a top TPG because there are just to many fakes out there and like these some are just to hard to tell the difference. If it werent for the improper die marriage (which the mint never put together) I would have thought they were real myself

Last year while I was vacationing in China, I picked up several fake Trade dollars for under $1 each (U.S. money, of course). Quite interesting, even if they are obviously very crude fakes. I also had fun with some fake Draped Bust Halves.

Bryan,

I too "look" at a lot of auctions and from what I read elsewhere, Trade dollars are very widely counterfieted. For some reason that is beyond me, people will still buy these raw. [:0] I could not imagine buying a coin from ebay with such a reputation unless it was slabbed.

Unlike you, I would probably not be able to spot a fake which makes me glad I don't collect them, and I shake my head in wonder at ebay. They allow someone to "gaurantee" with no return policy. [:0]

I'm saving these pics in my "fakes" file, so that if I ever decide to collect, I have another reference. Thanks!

Margaret

Thank you swamperbob I knew you would know for sure, I actually just sent you a email without reading this post first to see that you had already responded to it. I knew I had never seen that die marriage before on a legit coin, and this is the first struck forgery I have ever seen and I can tell you I'm impressed

A "bad die marriage" is a fake coin made from two different die types that were never originally paired together by the US Mint. The obverse (front) of the coin is made with one die and the reverse is made with a different die.

In modern coinage, dies are relatively uniform in design. In the earlier days of the Mint, that wasnt necessarily the case. When a new die was made, sometime subtle alterations or changes were made. The slight changes distinguished the new dies from older dies.

The coin in that ebay link is a struck Trade dollar made with forgery dies. That particular die marriage is not supposed to exist on a real Trade dollar. Most fake Trade dollars are cast, not struck. Cast counterfeits are usually easy to spot to a trained eye but struck counterfeits are much more deceptive. When dealing with a struck counterfeit, the best way to authenticate it is by die marriage.

I cannot tell that the die marriage is bad but what tipped me off to that coin being a fake is the fact that the appearance is pristine and the seller is trying to get $1000 for it but it is a raw coin. A seller trying to get the real value would have a coin like that authenticated and slabbed by an independent third party grading service.

There are many grading services out there. Most collectors only trust the top three, which are PCGS, NGC, and ANACS. PCGS and NGC require a dealer to submit to, unless you want to pay $100 to join ther collectors clubs. ANACS can be submitted to by anybody. Their economy service is around $12, and their 10-day service is $15ish. Keep in mind that there are certain limits for the values of the coins you submit for each tier of service.
www.pcgs.com
www.ngccoin.com
www.anacs.com