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 Replies: 20 / Views: 2,660 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1748 Posts |
What is the most commonly counterfeited key date American coin? My suspicion is either the 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent, 1916-D Mercury dime, or the 1893-S Morgan dollar... Be interesting to hear your opinions on it. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
604 Posts |
Good question. However, I have no answer! There are so many candidates. We could go down to the 3 legged Buffalo nickel, up to the 1933 $20 Double Eagle. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1748 Posts |
My gut feeling is the 1916-D Merc, Nick. Seems to always be a thread or two on here about verifying one. But hopefully we get input from folks that specialize in the field :)
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2936 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1796 Posts |
1916-D Merc is presently the most popularly counterfeited coin in fake slabs for the past few years, at least (and I presently have a backlog of them to enter into The Black Cabinet from ebay and other sources). Overall though, key date fakes have been on the decline lately in the wake of the precious metals boom with counterfeiters focusing more heavily on common date silver dollars, and bullion eagles. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1748 Posts |
Any idea of how they rank, Steve...like the top 5 for instance :)
Good to know on 1916-D Merc. Means I will have to be extremely careful on a slabbed one when I decide to pull the trigger.
Edited by DoubleEagle20
01/24/2015 5:03 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7375 Posts |
The 1922 no D Lincoln Cent has to be in there, all you have to do is remove the D. |
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Moderator
 Australia
16815 Posts |
In terms of the ratio of fakes/counterfeits to genuine examples, I'd have to go with the 1804 dollar. I've seen dozens of them posted here on the forum; funnily enough, not one of them has been genuine.
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
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1796 Posts |
@DoubleEagle20 - Getting a "Top 5" would be tricky as the data is always shifting an incomplete. Once I get through most of The Black Cabinet backlog and finish two pieces of tracking software (one that scans ebay to make counterfeits easier to spot and the other than scans AliBaba's sales figures) I might be in a better position to gather numbers. :-) @Sap - There are *at least* an order of magnitude more fake 1804 dollars than there are real ones. :-) |
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Rest in Peace
United States
18456 Posts |
Years back I knew of a 1955 double die that was counterfeit . it wasn't slabbed , it was raw.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1566 Posts |
I've been collecting for over 30 years and I've always heard that the 16-D Merc was the #1 counterfeited coin so I guess that's still true today.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1208 Posts |
This question may have had some merit 15+ years ago, however today China has become so good at US coinage that they counterfeit them ALL! You can buy complete sets of almost every series of US coins from China, and even specify if you want the coins delivered to you as "legal" copies with the necessary markings, or illegal counterfeits with no markings at all. There is no longer any one coin that needs more attention than another. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
952 Posts |
excellent thread....IMO the 16-D. then the 09-s VDB. both are big $ coins. I found a fake s-VDB in a bank roll when I was 13 or 14, wish I had kept it.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
9792 Posts |
 with the 1916-D Mercury dime, per David Bowers comments when I took a class with him, he said that at any given coin show (early 1980's - pre TPGs) where there were more than 10 1916-D dimes for sale that there was a good chance more than 6 of them were fake. So more than 50% out on the market back then were fake. We've come a long way since the introduction of TPG authentication, but there are still a lot of fake coins around, the stuff coming out of China, especially the faked PCGS slabs are very worrying, they are getting better and better at deception everyday, so as numismatists we need to stay vigilant and knowledgable, lest we get tricked. Just remember if a deal is too good to be true it most likely is these days. "Buy the Book Before You Buy the Coin" - Aaron R. Feldman - "And read it" - Me 2013! ANA Life Member #3288 in good standing since 1981, ANS, Early American Coppers Member (EAC), Colonial Coin Collectors Club member (C4), Conder Token Collector Club member (CTCC), Civil War Token Society (CWTS) member, Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC) & Numismatic Bibliomania Society member (NBS), USMex, Member in good standing, 2¢ variety collector. See my want page: http://goccf.com/t/140440 |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
In all my years of being offered expensive coins for a cheap price, the 1916D Mercury dime has always been the most common one. It appears that someone, somewhere is mass producing them. The 16D Merc has been almost always considered the most counterfeited coin in the world. Yes there are many others but not as common as the 16D Merc. I bought one for $5 some time ago and it looked so good, many dealers I showed it to could not tell it was fake. Whoever is making those is getting good. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
I'm going to go with 1944 no-P "Henning" nickel.
There are a lot of counterfeits of big-ticket items, but I think Henning takes the cake in terms of sheer volume. It's known that the feds found over 15,000 fake nickels when he was discovered--after successfully seeding thousands into circulation and dumping an estimated 400,000 into rivers and streams.
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Replies: 20 / Views: 2,660 |
Posted 01/24/2015 4:36 pm
