Authenticity Of 1856-O Half

Here is a link to a fake on for sale online (from China of course) compared to it this one looks great! I'm not seeing any huge red flags but still waiting on more clear photos.

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/pro...7983404.html

aliexpress? at least they say what the base metals are - no silver, none, zip.

epicur - can you also get some photos of the edge? I'd like to see the reeding better, it also could just be a light planchet.

The obverse on your coin looks fantastic, and if real great! It's the reverse that I think has some definite issues. Note differences in lettering I see on images from PCGS, Great Collections, Heritage, etc. in comparison. Something is odd there, but I can't put my finger on it.

I also note an absence of any die cracks, with were pretty common on these.

I have to say I'm a little confused with the inconsistencies on this one! The coin looks great to my eye but the under-weight is not good. They should be no reason for that.

I'll post a couple of 1856 O Half Dollars I have (one more worn than the other) for a visual comparison (though I think the details are pretty spot-on for the OP's coin...)

I normally stay in the World coin area but I was asked to give an opinion in this case.

I have been a counterfeit collector for over 50 years and for the past 20 I have also been a part time authenticator for several coin dealers in MA and now NC. I am also a member of ebay's committee on counterfeit coins so I get to see and vote on the removal of a few more interesting forgeries that way. My focus is world (they have plenty of US experts) but the techniques used are independent of what the coin is supposed to be.

The coin is simply stated a modern counterfeit. I have zero doubt and if that one was reported to safety and security I would vote for it's immediate removal.

I have actually seen much better. One coin that my instructor in authentication used back in 1978 was a Liberty Seated dollar that would put this half to shame.

The problems:

1 The weight. A loss of nearly a gram through normal wear is simply impossible for a coin in this grade. Remember that bank and mint standards called for half dollars to go back to the mint for melting when they reached 95% of original standard weight. A half dollar worn to .9 grams underweight is only going to grade G4 or perhaps VG8 at very best. This coin was made when silver was an intrinsic item and "money" was not fiat.

2. The thickened rim is caused by the need to add extra material to make up for the image transfer shrinkage. When a forger makes a mold of a coin using certain types of liquid material there is a slight shrinkage in diameter when the impression dries. Not all of these transfer materials are dimensionally stable. Therefore the added material is needed to get the coin to the correct size. The diameter will be right but the die face diameter will be small in this case. There is also a trace of a circular line (resembles a collar ring but is not quite right) where the addition happened.

3. The transfer image may be slightly doubled making the entire design and lettering look heavy. Some of the letters have extremely thick serifs. This is common in transfer technology. Also notice there is a slightly blunted look to the lettering and fine details.

4. I think it is a centrifugal casting possibly in silver. Castings often will look like cleaned original strikes. The cleaning effect is part due to the mold and part to chemical aging. Even a cleaned coin usually retains some mint luster in this grade.

5. Finally the corners of the coin seem to have been uniformly ground off to remove the traces of split tail reeds that result from application of reeds with a tapered ring die.

SwamperBob!

But if the counterfeits are getting this good I may need a new hobby...

Wow thanks for the input swamperbob! I'm saving this thread for future reference. Hopefully epikur can secure a refund without too much hassle.

This is one scary fake that I would have bought as genuine without hesitation. Seems the forgers are getting better at their skills. What I'm seeing now is a large beveled edge on every device and letter. Thanks swamperbob for opening my eyes.

The rim thickness - the overall thickness of the letters combined with a loss of sharp transitional detail etc is quite adequate from a photograph. But you have the coin in hand - weight is far better as PROOF and Specific Gravity would be even better. The coin absolutely will have a low SG in my opinion.

You should take that SG first. There are several threads on SG in the world section - I wrote some of them. It is the BEST protection the average collector has against fakes.