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Mark Hoffmann Forger - Murder Among The Mormons

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Valued Member
PPorro's Avatar
United States
123 Posts
 Posted 03/12/2021  1:15 pm Show Profile   Bookmark this topic Add PPorro to your friends list Get a Link to this Message Number of Subscribers
(2002) The penny, a 1959-D whose reverse side includes the wheat stalk design that was discontinued in 1958, was investigated last spring by the Counterfeit Division of the U.S. Secret Service, which declared the coin authentic. The testing included examination under a 200-power optical scanning electron micrograph, according to Coin World magazine.

"The coin it talks about is one of my forgeries," Hofmann wrote to his family in the July 24 letter, which included a copy of the magazine article. "It is struck from dies I made with an electroplating process."

Ira Goldberg, co-owner of Ira and Larry Goldberg Coins and Collectibles Inc. of Beverly Hills, Calif., which is set to auction the penny on Sept. 23, doesn't believe Hofmann is telling the truth in the letter. "Just because he said he made it doesn't mean by any stretch of the imagination he did. Here's a guy sitting in prison reading Coin World. . . . He's a known liar. I take it with a grain of salt."

"If it were electroplating, you'd see a seam," says Goldberg. It would also be detectable by measuring the coin's specific weight and gravity, he says. "I think he's trying to get publicity."

Also Mark Hoffmann -

"According to Mark Hofmann, while still a teenage coin collector, he forged a rare mint mark on a dime and was told by an organization of coin collectors that it was genuine.
Hofmann decided that if experts said the coin was genuine, then it was genuine, and he was cheating no one to whom he sold it."

Does anyone know more of Hoffmann's coin forgery?

I picked up on this after watching the Mormon Murder documentary, which I remembered bits and pieces, but nothing about coin forgery.
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Conder101's Avatar
United States
17836 Posts
 Posted 03/13/2021  08:51 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Conder101 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Hoofman was a forger of document, coins, and Mormon currency. His document forgeries were quite good, his currency and Mormon coin forgeries were above average , his forgeries of other coins I don't know enough about but they were probably above average as well. I would recommend Numismatic Forgery by Charles Larson. If I remember correctly Larson was one of Hoffman's prison guards and he got much of the information in the book from Hoffman.
Valued Member
PPorro's Avatar
United States
123 Posts
 Posted 03/17/2021  09:04 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add PPorro to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Thanks @Conder101 I found it on ebay $14.95 for much less than Amazon. $10 less and that was before shipping was added.

Almost bought from the lower price seller, but I'm still shy of (0) people.

Can't beat interesting reading and maybe I'll learn something?
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