Barber Half Dollar Counterfeits In Lead: 1897-O, 1897-S (2), 1898-S, 1902-S

I just lost out on a set of Seated halves in lead, had 27 coins in the set, they were all contemporary counterfeits, I stopped my bidding at $4.50/coin or $121.50 I recall they sold for close to $200.00 sold as known contemporary counterfeits to other collectors of them (there is a group on FB for us like minded collectors of "good" bad money that actually circulated).

Were these likely made with an intention to circulate? Or were they made for some other reason such as for a collector?

I know very, very little about lead counterfeits of this or any other era, and am curious why they would have been made.

There are two aspects of this cast counterfeit group that I find intriguing. One is that all four boast a full Liberty. The other is that they're all branch mint copies. Like many longtime collectors, I've encountered a number of these fakes. It's been my experience that the majority were lower grade Philly copies.

I do buy into the theory that these fakes are contemporary, largely pre-1930's items. I say this because the majority of cast counterfeit Walkers I've seen have been in the teens and twenties. While I've seen lead Barber dimes and quarters, too, along with a few Standing Liberty quarters, the half dollars appear to have been struck greater in numbers. Do others concur? Also, my guess is that these pieces were used to take advantage of immigrants flooding into America during those early decades; this, at a time when our silver coins were transitioning from one type to another.

As an aside, one of two coins that my Dad gave me as a kid in the fifties was a 1918 lead half dollar. He thought both coins he'd found in an old trunk were fakes. The other coin turned out to be a genuine 1795 $1. Dad came to America in 1930, and he'd not before seen one of these in circulation. My subsequent trip to the library educated him, too.

My observation is that a lot of the collector fakes use the same obverse and modify the dates. Because of that they often have the wrong obverse type. However, these all seem to have been taken from coins bearing those dates, and the 1901 transition to obverse type 2 is evident on the 1902 pictured. That doesn't prove they were contemporary but is something I noticed.

Thicknesses are very different. I do not see any seams though. My calipers took a crap, I have a new one on the way. I'll get all the specs within a few days.

Very worth having them all in a 'black' collection, despite the obvious fact that they are of lead. Their surface texture suggests that they are cast. On the suspicion? that they are most probably contemporary counterfeits, they may? well have a small place in American numismatic history.

Any (even slightly) serious modern collector would not be deceived.

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It is worth remembering that Mints occasionally do die trial strikes in lead, but their fabric is very different

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Lead has occasionally been used as a genuine coinage metal
1. The Chinese produced a few cast cash coins in lead.
2. Some minor coins of Ujjain South India the second century were made of lead
3. Lead floral coins of Angkor were produced in South East Asia in (about) the 13th and 14th centuries.

wow - the edges are all kinds of messed up.