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Counterfeit Detection: 1850 Jb Costa Rica Gold Escudo

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CCFPress's Avatar
United States
1420 Posts
 Posted 03/23/2024  10:36 am Show Profile   Bookmark this topic Add CCFPress to your friends list Get a Link to this Message Number of Subscribers
NGC - A missing skirt is among the clues that this coin isn't real.

Only 6,167 Costa Rican gold escudos were struck in 1850, making it a scarce coin today. Because demand far outstrips supply, examples of this coin are worth much more than melt value. Unfortunately, that makes these coins a ripe target for counterfeiters.

Recently, NGC received the coin below in a submission.

Counterfeit-Detection:-1850-Jb-Costa-Rica-Gold-Escudo
Counterfeit 1850 JB Costa Rica Gold Escudo

Regrettably for the owner, the coin that was submitted was a counterfeit. With more knowledge about the series, perhaps this fake could have been spotted before submission. Just take a look at how much better the detail is on a genuine example.

Counterfeit-Detection:-1850-Jb-Costa-Rica-Gold-Escudo
Genuine 1850 JB Costa Rica Gold Escudo

As you can see from the photos above, the genuine piece has a much stronger strike and the details are far sharper. This is even more noticeable when the design is magnified.

Counterfeit-Detection:-1850-Jb-Costa-Rica-Gold-Escudo
Close-up of genuine 1850 JB Costa Rica Gold Escudo (left) and counterfeit example (right)

On the fake coin, almost all of the fine detail on the high points of the body is lost, especially the feathered skirt. In fact, the skirt is completely missing on the counterfeit piece.

Additionally, note how rounded and misshapen the lettering is on the column. Instead of sharply rising from the surface of the coin, the letters on the fake sort of blend in to the surface, especially the top two lines as well as the second "1" in "1821."

Read More: Counterfeit Detection Series

Check out Costa Rica Gold on ebay.
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IndianGoldEagle's Avatar
United States
36415 Posts
 Posted 03/23/2024  12:03 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add IndianGoldEagle to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Comparing with a genuine coin makes the details look pretty obvious.
Pillar of the Community
United States
1962 Posts
 Posted 03/24/2024  7:26 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add realeswatcher to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
It appears that they are correct about this piece, with the biggest tell being their secondary point about the misshapen column lettering... also the rim/denticle area.

However, their opening, primary point about "see how weakly struck it is and all the detail is missing?" is off-base. Anyone semi-familiar with these knows this Standing 1850s Costa Rica coinage is notoriously weakly-struck in the center - a quick review of authentic examples quickly proves this.

They cherrypicked a MUCH higher grade piece (less circulation wear - UNC or very close) that ALSO happens to have received a much better than typical strike. It in fact is rather unusual to find a VF-XF piece with more than just a trace of skirt detail.

Here, as a fairer comparison, is a piece that NGC straight-graded XF45 (which was generous as it pretty much looks textbook ex-jewelry surface, seems to have an ignored mount mark... plus not sure if that's notable scratch or a die crack). A much closer match in circulation wear to what was the model for the fake piece... and just look how blunt the center is.

Counterfeit-Detection:-1850-Jb-Costa-Rica-Gold-Escudo
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1962 Posts
 Posted 03/24/2024  7:37 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add realeswatcher to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Here is a piece from ebay archives which clearly "matches" the fake... Not super-crisp pics, but it looks like there are enough surface depressions, marks and such which don't seem to match - to the point where it appears that's not the same piece but rather a 2nd example of this fake:

Counterfeit-Detection:-1850-Jb-Costa-Rica-Gold-Escudo
Counterfeit-Detection:-1850-Jb-Costa-Rica-Gold-Escudo
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bobby131313's Avatar
United States
24147 Posts
 Posted 03/25/2024  08:14 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add bobby131313 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Thank realeswatcher, good stuff!
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