Posted 11/06/2011 03:20 am
#1 and #4 are fantasies; no genuine coins were ever made with those designs.
#2 is the scarce and popular "auto dollar", as you pointed out.
#3 is the very common "fat man" dollar, but being common does not necessarily make it less likely to be fake. I own a fake one of these, with very similar black "spray-painted" toning.
#5 is China's first dollar, the "Old Man Dollar" of Taiwan, 1837-1845. Also popular and scarce, like #2. There's no pic on the NGC page for this coin.
Finding super-rarities, common coins and fantasies all mixed together like this is a sure sign that they're all replicas. If you know that they all came from the same source, they're definitely all fakes. But from the look of them, I'd have to condemn them stylistically, too.
If you want to reassure yourself that they're definitely fake, the first and simplest test is a magnet. If they stick, they're modern steel fakes. If they don;t stick, try weighing them. The Old Man should weigh 26.8 grams, the auto dollar should be 25.8 grams, the Fat Man 26.4 grams. The typical replicas being made by the truckload in China don't weigh anywhere near that, typically 21-22 grams.
#2 is the scarce and popular "auto dollar", as you pointed out.
#3 is the very common "fat man" dollar, but being common does not necessarily make it less likely to be fake. I own a fake one of these, with very similar black "spray-painted" toning.
#5 is China's first dollar, the "Old Man Dollar" of Taiwan, 1837-1845. Also popular and scarce, like #2. There's no pic on the NGC page for this coin.
Finding super-rarities, common coins and fantasies all mixed together like this is a sure sign that they're all replicas. If you know that they all came from the same source, they're definitely all fakes. But from the look of them, I'd have to condemn them stylistically, too.
If you want to reassure yourself that they're definitely fake, the first and simplest test is a magnet. If they stick, they're modern steel fakes. If they don;t stick, try weighing them. The Old Man should weigh 26.8 grams, the auto dollar should be 25.8 grams, the Fat Man 26.4 grams. The typical replicas being made by the truckload in China don't weigh anywhere near that, typically 21-22 grams.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
