Real Or Fake? 1861 Dollar

Looks OK to my inexpert eye. Overlay with a PCGS picture checks out. Devices don't look puffy or broad. Is there anything in particular that looks off to you? I'd like to learn more about spotting counterfeits.

I HATE looking at ebay pictures to make up my mind to say if a coin is good or not.
Nevertheless, this coin looks rather 'pasty' to my eye.

I would much rather examine a coin in hand with a loupe before deciding to buy, but I guess that is just me!

It seems that he has just written down the standard specifications of the coin.

I would like to do a comparative ring tone test against a known genuine coin of exactly the same specification, and weigh it for myself.

To say a coin is suspect simply because it is not in a slab is ridiculous. There are plenty of coins like this not in a slabe that are perfectly fine.

I see nothing at all here to tell me it is fake. Pasty? What do you mean by pasty? And I can pretty much guarantee that if you went into a shop or to a dealers table and dropped that coin to do a "ring test", there would be some heated conversation going on.

I don't know where uncertainty would come from beyond the obvious it isn't right in front of me. The pics are clear and show the coin well. Full retail on that coin (I am saying it is a VG at the absolute best, and that may be stretching it) would be 725, so they are bidding well above its value, but stuff happens.

Thank you D0ubl3Eagle and smokeriderdon for reiterating that a slab is not the only way to determine authenticity of a coin! For what it's worth, the position of the stars and date here relative to the denticles appears spot-on for an 1861.

Thank you D0ubl3Eagle you expressed some of the concerns I had with this coin better than I could. Not considering purchasing this coin, just saw it on ebay and wanted to see if anyone else was as uneasy about its authenticity.

Joe2007, I personally see nothing that makes me uneasy about the coin in question, but I would want to see it and hold it before I bought it, do not believe you can judge a coin from a photograph, and would never have paid anything near what it sold for. I am no expert but other than the strange dot mentioned above and another smaller one to the left of the 1st star at 9 0'clock, the devices and fonts on this coin all look fine to me.
But the reason I wanted to comment was in response to the discussion about "why isn't it slabbed?". I have been collecting coins for about 50 years now (since 3rd grade and I am old). I have only sent in 4 coins to TPGs since they came on the scene years ago. Why would I? I learned how to grade carefully early on (and have kept up with the changing grading scale over time, I am much pickier than most TPGS), I study the coins I collect and very rarely get fooled by a counterfeit or altered coin and once I have convinced myself that I like the coin, it goes into my collection, why would I pay someone else I don't know for their opinion? If I need a second opinion, I share the coin with other serious collectors that I do know and we compare opinions. My point is that there are thousands upon thousands of collectors like me out there that have accumulated these coins over the years and have no desire to slab them. Not being slabbed is not a sign the coin has something wrong with it. The coin having something wrong with it is a sign the coin has a problem.

My point is that there are thousands & thousands of collectors like me out there that do not have the resources, time, or knowledge of more experienced collectors.
Some of us rely on TPG's to help us not make expensive mistakes.
This is a forum for learning, & yes a rare higher end ebay coin that is questionable, not being sold by a reputable source, & not certified Is a sign of something wrong.

Billie
I understand your point but I take a different view, ebay is not the place to be buying an unslabbed "coin that is questionable, not being sold by a reputable source, & not certified." If you are going to be spending real dollars to buy nice coins, take the time, make the effort, join a coin club, attend coin shows and learn how to grade, learn how to detect cleaning, learn how to detect counterfeits and become a skilled collector. Develop a network of people such as is found on this forum that have those skills and trust their judgement, and yes...rely on the high end TPGs to a point, but you should always be buying the coin and not the holder. My point was merely that not being in a slab is not a sign of a problem. May I invite you please to join us on the world coin section of this forum where very few if any coins are in slabs and a good number of the ones that are get posted because the TPG messed up, often in a big way. We have very lively discussions and share our experience and knowledge in detecting counterfeits and problem coins. Come join the fun.