Here is what I wrote regarding Chris' coin. The first letter was written before I unpacked from my trip to New England so I had limited access to my testing apparatus: Hello Chris,
The
Trade dollar was in the mail my wife picked up from the PO while I was in New England. I got to look at it today. I got home last night at 12 midnight after a 12 hour drive.
Initially, based on a microscopic examination I believe it is a forgery. However, the clues are NOT overwhelming and it may still be real. I do work on a predominance of evidence basis if there is no conclusive diagnostic. I will have to do some added tests tomorrow after I unpack all of my instruments and my camera. I want to take pictures of what I see as anomalies. I also want to look at it with more rested eyes.
What I noted so far is as follows:
1. On the obverse, there is a "seam" running concentrically in the flat portion of the rim. This could be a line caused by a misaligned or worn collar - however, it appears that someone intentionally tried to remove the seam by filing the edge. There are repeated patches of parallel scratches indicating it was mechanically smoothed. This is not typical of wear patterns - especially since the file marks are wholly contained along the rim and do NOT extend to the coin's face.
2. The dirt accumulated in the Chops and elsewhere is "soft" easily dislodged with the corner of a sheet of paper - typical of some "aged" Chinese counterfeits in silver. It has a waxy to slightly abrasive texture and could be a light polish used in a finishing step. There is a very limited amount of dark patina but some streaks of dark material appear to be very recently applied with highly reflective (wet looking) surfaces. These collectively are indications of recent cleaning and/or artificial aging.
3. I noticed numerous very short stubby animal hairs - bristles on the surface which I have seen on many Pillar 8R counterfeits coming from China. These very dark brown hairs are embedded in the soft surface dirt. In one place, it appears that one hair may have been STRUCK INTO THE SURFACE. I will concentrate on that area tomorrow. A struck in hair which matches loose hairs found on the surface would be a DEFINITIVE indication of forgery.
4. I also noted the presence of filings (shiny flecks apparently silver) lodged in the surface dirt. This could also indicate recent manufacture or at least it would place the coin in a "workshop" type of environment very recently.
5. The edge pattern of the reeds looks very good. There are no split top reeds or laps in the design. The design appears correct but - I will count the reeds and measure the spacing tomorrow when I can see just a bit better.
6. The die surfaces look good with just few stray suspicious marks. I see some but not enough to be definitive.
7. The chops look slightly irregular - I will try to clean the bottom surface of one or two chops tomorrow to see if the chops were made with single puncheons as they should be. Forgers have been known to use small punch elements (straight segments) to create a real looking letter with several separate strokes. These forged chops are normally filled with dirt to cover the bases of the punch.
8. The weight is correct based on my small digital electric scale, but my analytical balance is still packed. I want to check the SG.
I will get back to you tomorrow after I complete the other tests.
Bob
Here is the follow-up from the following day. I have done some editing and added modified pictures because the ones I sent to Chris did not upload to the forum. :Hi Chris,
After a good night's sleep - I realize that I seem to be weeks behind in my regular work because of the past week! LOL
(.... deleted material that was off topic) But I will add pictures of the coin itself here. 
Anyway, regarding your coin. I started by doing a Specific Gravity test this AM. I did the test 3 times (standard) achieving a +/- 0.003 gram range and the resulting SG is 9.967 to 9.959. That equates to a silver alloy with a fineness between 700 and 705. That is a conclusive result - the coin is not original. Sorry.
I also examined the coin again using the microscope and confirmed my earlier observations. I cleaned one chop sufficiently to determine that the dirt did cover an overstrike.
The chop is NOT composed of a single stroke. The elements (of at least the one I chose to clean) were cut with at least two different punches applied in succession. A normal chop punch was a SINGLE stroke meant to cut into the coin and expose a plate. The second cut in this case was done to enhance the appearance of the chop. That is an artificial attempt to make the character look better. The curl of metal near the right upright section of the chop is the proof of a second over punch.
The immersion in distilled water to do the SG test did remove many, but not all of the brown hairs I observed. The one I suspected was a strike through was in fact impressed into the surface of the coin. Removal of a portion of the "hair" exposed an impression in the surface.
To the left of the two berries is what looks like a hangman's noose. That is one of the hairs or fibers that is impressed into the surface. I broke the fiber and removed a section (before this picture was taken) located near the "knot" this exposed a recess in the metal. The shadow makes the fiber appear intact but there is a gap. You can also see one of the hairs - more like a bristle to the right of the berries near the leaves.
I was also bothered by the profile of Liberty - the image doubling can be original but is more common on counterfeits.
Today I noted more surface blemishes than I did last night. Here for instance is a raised circular dot that does not belong - this is a depression in the die face.
Sorry it did not come out better, but as a counterfeit the coin is a very interesting item because of the skill with which it was produced. It would have been far more difficult to PROVE it was a forgery if the SG had been 10.30. It is the best forgery of a
Trade dollar that I have seen to date. Super from that perspective but of very limited actual value. I can return it when I go to the PO on Friday.
Bob Gurney
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Posted 09/13/2010 5:55 pm
That is great. Send me your addy. Yes, you can photo it.
)
