Some New Old Counterfeits

ebay has been very kind lately and some very nice counterfeits have been posted. Here are a few good ones that I have won recently:

The first one is the Riddell # 61 - an 1818 Charles IV 8R from Mexico. The problem here is that it portrays the WRONG King. Ferdinand VII was King in 1818 not Charles IV. The coin is attributed to US sources.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...WN:IT&ih=002

The second is the Riddell # 223 - a very common type which was redated several times. Dates of 1829 to 1833 are encountered. Most are worn Sheffield Plate copies, but this one is intact. Note the broken toe on the eagle's foot where he is grasping the cactus pad.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...WN:IT&ih=007

The third is a crude copy of a Durango 8R - this copy circulated because the War issues were notoriously crude. However, by 1822 all of the branch mints had adopted punches for lettering - look at the letters in HISPAN - they are too crude to be believed.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...WN:IT&ih=009

The fourth one arrived in the mail today. It is spectacular in person because the edge design used ties the coin to a New England forgery ring that operated in the 1830s and 1840s. The coin itself is crude and uses a very unbelievable eagle. In 1837 Durango was using high quality French made punches with a very distinctive eagle. Finally, the assayer initials on this coin are backwards. The 1837 Durango coins use RM not MR. The forgers must have forgotten they were writing backwards.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...WN:IT&ih=013