1909 S VDB Lincoln Wheat Cent Fake - Right?

Frog, awhile ago, from somewhere I recall a marker for the Chinese fakes was the die dot on left wheat stalk I circled above. Unless that's a marker for a real one...hmmm

Crazy - Who knows, I'm no expert. I certainly wouldn't buy one raw, and this very convincing example only reinforces that. I once thought I was pretty good at verifying these - no longer I'm afraid.

If you ever have any doubts, you can send it to ANACS.

I had one that I received from my parents as a high school graduation gift many years ago. I sent mine off to ANACS a while back and it came back AU55 and legit. I was pleased and relieved.
So, yes, send it off for confirmation to be safe.

Two other things I find interesting about the coin. First, assuming this is an example of a 1909 VDB with an S glued on then they did a really bang-up job of things with the mint mark. Location is close enough to correct that even with an overlay it's tough to say and the color and texture and wear and goop around it are exactly the same for the date and the mint mark. And I don't now how the Chinese "age" their fakes but that sure looks like real black age gunk on there, presumably smeared around the mint mark from other places on the coin to match. I don't know, just guessing.

The second point would be something I have little information on but read a bit about. Apparently all these are supposed to have a shallow N in UNITED and this one does not seem to have that. The reason I put it as a fake myself when I bought it was the slanted mint mark serif is a known marker for fakes and those scratches that look like the S was placed on top of them. I learned about the supposed shallow N later but that would be three strikes against it.

Interesting coin and really enjoying the discussion here. I will probably see more such things down the road and like to learn ahead of time as much as possible with what can be very expensive coins or mistakes depending mostly on one's knowledge.

I collect fake coins, which is why I bought it and have no intention of selling it either way. I find that fakes are pretty cool, and can be very hard to find sometimes (at least for the price of a fake not someone trying to pass one off as real). I don't think you can purposely sell a coin on ebay even if you label it as a known fake. But I pick them up when I get a chance. I am currently trying to find a copper 1943 altered date for my collection, as I have a couple examples of copper plated ones but want one that was altered to try and deceive.

First thing caught my attention was the missing dots in the VDB ,other than the MM not being the right style!