1877 Indian Head Cent - Counterfeit

The stong 'N' in 'ONE' is a dead giveaway!

Not just the bold N the whole obverse looks silly

Although a fake it does look fairly decent. The N does give it away but any new collector who didn't know the diagnostics for the shallow N would probably think this is legit. Thanks for sharing!

-CH27

I wouldn't of know it was fake. Glad I am reading through these forums.

"Shallow N" as in Grease Filled Die N?

This is correct.

It was not considered a faulty design at the time. It was the standard reverse before 1870, and used along side the new Bold N reverse in 1870, 1871 and 1872. After 4 years of the new Bold N reverse, the Shallow N reverse reappeared in 1877 for reasons not fully understood to this day, but most likely it was to get extra mileage out of this old undamaged die during a year when output was expected to be very low. The Bold N resumed in 1878.

The Bold and Shallow N varieties for 1870, 1871 and 1872 are generally easy to distinguish, even in well circulated grades.