Fake 1895-O Barber Dime Sold For $766 Ebay

@Jadey - Condor101 has said what I meant much better than I did. I think they took a real post-1901 coin, made hubs, then "altered" the date to produce their counterfeit dies. I should not have said "altered date", which means changing the date directly on a real coin.

One thing I notice on the date is that the denticles don't line up the same (fake on left, real on right).


I agree with the "mushy appearance and other characteristics" as well, which is often a gut-reaction judgement that is correct in most cases once you've seen enough of them. However, this is also often not enough evidence to condemn someone's coin, so we should always strive for more specifics.

I'm curious if the changes to the reverse made in 1900 are documented somewhere? Edit: aha, it's right there on the NGC page for 1901.

I hate to disagree with the experts on this, but clearly the reverse die changed in 1900 - the vein markers noted above are present on the NGC reverse image for 1900. https://www.NGCcoin.com/coin-explor...coinid-14822
Might be fun to look around for examples of the "old" reverse on 1901 (or even 1900?) because I have not seen any on Heritage.

Very nice work kbbpll. Thanks for the education everybody.

This was the first series I began with an intent of completing, and is minus that elusive '94s, in the late seventies. Although an "expert" by no means, and having looked at and handled hundreds of Barber dimes, this one appears genuine. Cleaned, but genuine.

Ballyhoo - the reverse on OP coin does not exist prior to 1901. See page 6, and below.
Condor101 - I agree, but it's one more detail to check.
MeadowviewCollector - thanks for pointing me to Barber Coin Collectors' Society. What did the hub article you mentioned have to say, related to this counterfeit?

Thanks to MeadowviewCollector, I found https://archive.org/details/compgui...awr/page/n11 "The Complete Guide to Barber dimes" by David Lawrence (1991). I think the NGC information posted previously was taken from this book, and it sent me down the rabbit hole, because of the cryptic NGC comment regarding 1901: "both the old and new reverse are known for this [1901] date" https://www.NGCcoin.com/coin-explor...oinid-14824. I could not find an example of my conception of the "old" reverse anywhere on Heritage or PCGS for 1901.

Lawrence mentions "new" and "old" reverses several times, in the context of the "old" reverse appearing on 1901, 1903, and 1905 coins. This would really complicate things as far as Counterfeit Detection. Then I realized that Lawrence is referring to "thin right ribbon" and "thick right ribbon" - "the right ribbon below the bow is thicker with an extra fold". Aha!

I believe there are actually three reverse designs for the Barber dime:
#1 - original leaf veins and corn kernels, thin ribbon, 1892-1899
#2 - modified leaf veins and kernels, thin ribbon, 1900-ca.1905
#3 - #2 with thick ribbon, 1901-1916

I think the transition to #2 in 1900 went unnoticed, because the changes to the veins and kernels was so minor on a tiny coin, and therefore "old" to Lawrence refers to both #1 and #2.

#1 - original leaf veins and corn kernels, thin ribbon, 1892-1899

#2 - modified leaf veins and kernels, thin ribbon, 1900-ca.1905

#3 - same as #2, but with thick ribbon, 1901-1916

#2 again - the fact that the same year and mint has two different ribbons is noticeable

Markers differentiating #1 from #2

Markers differentiation #2 from #3


Interesting that there appears to be an obverse Type 1 in 1901-O.

CSI: Coin Community

Impressive detective work here!

Yes, the experts here have forgotten more about coins then I would ever be able to retain.

Thanks MV. I'm curious to know whether the fact that there are actually three reverse types for Barber dimes has been documented, because as we see here it is an important factor in identifying counterfeits.

Before digging into this, I knew nothing about Barber dimes, and the only one I own is a 1902 damaged VG8 worth less than $5. But now I can readily see that mine is correct - left leaf vein points to notch, thick ribbon, branching vein well above overlapping leaf, large rectangular kernels. The left vein and thick ribbon I can pick out on Heritage images all the way down to G4 and sometimes AG3. If you see these pre-1900, it's fake.

There are currently 7 sellers on the unmentionable site with 1895 dimes, and 6 of them have the wrong reverse. I realize threads like this run the risk of making them smarter, but if they have to retool and throw out all their inventory, maybe that's a small win.