Philippine/U.s 1906-S One Peso And A Mexicana Coin

Your Mexican is an 1845 Guadalajara 8 Reales. If authentic, it's appears to be a very expensive coin. I don't have "Resplandores" at work, so I can't compare it to the plate coin, but my outdated Krause lists this MintMark/Year/Assayer at $1,250 in XF.

We should wait for Swamperbob to have a say. He should be able to identify if it's a counterfeit. To me, the "dragon teeth" seem a little too long, but that could be due to the positioning of the coin itself when the picture was taken. Also, lack of dentils is alarming, as well as the rim, if you look at the Cap side at 9-11 o'clock. Also, looks to have loss of detail on the Eagle side, noticeable if you look at the rock/cactus/lake (bottom of the design).

~Roman

TwoKopeiki - Roman - the Dragon's Teeth are indeed too long. In 1845 they were NOT USED at any mint. This is a common Chinese alteration and they fool many novice collectors. They are prevalent on ebay and were far more common before "Resplandores" because few collectors actually knew what these dates looked like. More recently, the forgers have at least been picking varieties that are closer to the originals. It was likely made over 10 years ago.

The 1845 Guadalajara is an altered original coin made from a coin struck from a Standardized die pair. Standardization at Guadalajara began in 1887. So this die style is 42 years ahead of its time.

baguiobookstore Sorry but the Mexican coin is not a real 1845. As an altered original it is worth about $25 to a specialist like myself. If you post it on ebay I would bid to that limit, but frankly it will likely sell for more to someone who will try to sell it as original. It is dangerous to a Novice collector, but represents no difficulty once you know what the Standard dies look like.

Regarding the 1906 Philippines coin - I am not a specialist in the area, but that coin was struck in the US and the coin does not come up to the standards normally see for the Barber series struck at the same mint. I am disturbed most by the lack of sharp details, the roughness of the fields (near Peso) and the pronounced collar seam visible on the same side as the roughness noted above (but directly below it). If I had to give an opinion, I would say it is a counterfeit made from transfer dies or molds. If it is real it has serious surface damage that would preclude grading by the big 3.

That's a pretty bold announcement Scavenger.

While I express no particular opinion as to this coin's authenticity, it seems unlikely a counterfeiter would mess with the "1". It's the "6" that makes it valuable. Why not just leave the "190_" part of a real coin alone and alter the 6? That, plus the serif looks just like the one on my 1905, but then I'm not an expert.

Maybe Scavenger would give us some details of his expertise in this area. It's possible that he is familiar with counterfeits of this coin and, if so, it may be wise to defer to his judgment.

I do know the 1906 peso is very rare and counterfeits exist. I'm just a little skeptical of using the serif on the "1" as the basis for declaring this coin counterfeit.

In November 1905 the die used for the Philippine peso was changed. The new die had a straight serif. This is why there are two types of the 1905-S. Type 1 having the curved serif and the more scarce type 2 with the straight serif. The same die was used for the 1906-S Peso's. So, all authentic 1906-S peso's have a straight serif. There are other ways to detect a fake 1906-S but this is the most obvious. I'm not an expert in this field but very knowledgeable being as though I have collected these for several years.

I should have done more research before challenging Scavenger on this.

I agree that the serif on Baguiobookstore's 1906 peso looks like it's curved.

Then I Googled this, and see that this very question was extensively discussed over on the PCGS board not too long ago, with Justhavingfun (a real expert on Philippoine coins) declaring unequivocally that if a the serif the 1906 Philippine peso is curved, it's counterfeit since the dies that year were changed to a straight serif.

So nice job Scavenger. The chance this coin is counterfeit is high.

BTW, there is a slabbed 1906 Philippine peso on ebay (an AU) right now. The bidding is up to $7,900.