Oregon Trail Half - Desperation Purchase

My views FWIW ...




Negative ... those are bag hits as the Chief leg is not the high point of the obverse design ...

We all enjoy your artistic 'reflection' photos specksynder ... they are well done indeed ... but they make it difficult for me to focus on the coin. For Internet grading opinions I would prefer high resolution shots without the additional image.

Do appreciate as well your shots in both light conditions ... sooooo .. with what I have to work with ...

The simple task of offering an opinion on authenticity is a bit problematic on this example ...

The coin is obviously die struck with significant luster ... yet there are two features on the obverse that are troubling to me ...

First ... in the obverse field at 1pm above the Chief left shoulder are two dots ... they appear to be proud of the surface ... and they were not a part of the Fraser/Fraser design.

Second ... in the obverse field from 7pm to 8pm there appears to be a series of incuse 'holes' ... look to the left (as the coin is shown) of the Chief head dress and below the Legend.

Have you weighed the coin?

Assuming this coin is genuine ... then my opinion is MS63.

I am hesitant to suggest authenticity however ... and if counterfeit than this is the most scary fake example I have ever seen.

What say you specksynder ... tell us what you see about the dots and holes with the coin in hand.

David

Thanks for the comments. I hadn't considered that the reflection et. al. distracted. Here are some unaltered pics.

By the way, there is a decent die rotation on this coin. I don't have a protractor, but I would estimate about a 10-degree rotation.

I think this photo best shows the reality of the bag hit in the upper right. This is actually a line of about 3 hits that I think is from the rim of a single coin striking the field...



As for the dings in the lower left, they seem to form 2 lines as well. Here are two more pics...

Yes, when you see the coin in hand, the 1 o'clock marks are incuse. I'm usually too lazy to walk over to the better-lit kitchen to take photos. This is one of those times that I probably should have done so.

There shouldn't be any dots in the Mexico or Canada portion of the obverse. Here's a couple shots of MS-66 1926 Oregon Trail coins.

The dots have been addressed as incuse bag hits according to the OP.




Indeed ... and with all due respect I spent way too much of my limited time offering a professional opinion to your inquiry ... perhaps next time I might just be too lazy to reply.

David