Trade Dollars: One Fake, Two Fakes, Or None Fake?

When it comes to Trade dollars, its better to just buy one slabbed.

epikur the best defense is to know what the genuine coin is suppose to look like. Look at many genuine coins, get use to what the correct color should be, details, weight, and remember used silver coins have a distinctive odor. If you want one now without taking the time to learn, buy a certified coin by one of USA top grading companies.

Compare the details of your two coins to those in these photos of a genuine coin.

Both are indeed fake.

OK. First coin:

Aside the color, the reverse is relatively convincing. Strike is good, denticles are sharp, and only the tail area immediately above 900 draws attention. But, to a knowledgeable collector, that's attention enough to disqualify it. The obverse is far more clear on the issue. It has the classic mushiness of the fakes, especially on the periphery. The first place to look on the obverse is the branch in Liberty's hand, and this one's a smoking-gun giveaway with its' weakness. That's always a difficult place for the counterfeiters to get right.

The overall color is classic "off-metal fake". Note the obvious areas of green corrosion on the obverse - I don't see a righteous Trade dollar doing that. They have too much relief to be PVC infection, considering the small area they cover. I own an off-metal Seated dollar with similar corrosion, which has developed during the 5 years I've owned it.

And look at the bagmark in the northwest field. This one traded as genuine for much of its' life. Given that it was acquired for a Dollar's worth of value, and liquidated for a Dollar's worth of value, in that sense for a while it was genuine.

The second one requires no such in-depth study. Its' overall mushiness is an instant disqualification. At least they got the branch right, but the adjacent neck just blows it out of the water.

Thanks for all your input...SsuperDdave, that was just the sort of info I needed

If there is one single generality you can apply to determining the authenticity of a Major like Trade dollars and Morgans, it's consistency. These were struck with superior technology, and very high quality control, and wore evenly. With a coin that large, inconsistent details were much harder to hide than with smaller coins. Don't look at just one aspect - compare all details and fields to each other. If they don't seem consistent to you - each matching the strike quality and wear rate of the others - the red flag is raised until you convince yourself otherwise.

Unfortunately, the quality of the counterfeits are steadily increasing, and the newer ones (last few years) are difficult indeed.

I could tell both of those were fake if all you had supplied was the Obverse pictures. That second one is not even a good fake it is pretty close to the worst looking copy I believe I have ever seen. I don't remember ever seeing ones neck look like that before. There is missing details all over the Obverse and Reverse of that coin