Post Your Counterfeit Coins Here (Educational Thread)

Very interesting!

I was at a pawn shop that had a modest selection of silver coins. They had 6 silver dollars in capsules grouped together away from their other ones - 5 Peace and 1 Morgan. At first glance I could tell that two of the Peace dollars were blatant fakes and the Morgan didn't look right either. I pointed this out to the clerk and he didn't believe me, so I asked him to weigh all 6. The first one (pictured below) came in at slightly over 20 g (I couldn't see the scale). At this point, the manager became involved and was offended - he acted like I was pulling a scam or trying to steal from them. He brought it into the office to get XRF measurements. The other five also came in underweight. I didn't get to see the XRF measurements, but all were mainly copper. Unfortunately, the manager would not sell me any of them.
US 1 Dollar 1926 fake pawn shop

Wow, Hondo Boguss. That Peace dollar is so fake. The face of her is cartoonish.

Details aren't too bad from a distance, but the surfaces give it away. Does it feel "chalky"?

I picked up this fake 1894-O Barber half dollar at a recent show for $1. At 11.46 g, it's a full gram below nominal weight.

No, I generally don't buy coins that anyone would fake. The seller knew this was fake and wasn't trying to hide it. There's no way anyone would have mistaken it for an authentic coin - it looks worse in hand than the picture suggests. The splotches are raised - this was a really bad casting.

Interesting purchase, HondoB.