1861 Dime

How much does it weigh? I think it may be a contemporary counterfeit. If that is the case, then it is probably worth more than its genuine counterpart.

I think MeadowviewCollector and TypeCoin971793 nailed it. I don't know how much it weighs. It has a nice ring to it but not quite silvery. The brass appearance is how it looks in hand.

Boring story time. I got this coin around 1971 from my grandparents. As a little kid, I was fascinated by the idea that Abe Lincoln could have had it in his pocket. After I became aware of my genealogy, I started thinking perhaps my grandmother got it from her grandfather, George Emory Logue, who fought in the Civil War (enlisted at 17!). Since she also had a musket from the Pennsylvania Regiment carried by another ancestor in the Revolution, it was believable that my great-great-grandfather had kept this dime. I put it in a 2x2, where it has sat since then.

There was a local coin show today, so last night I was going through my coins, thinking about whether I should finally do an ANACS submission, and when I got to this 1861 I looked it up on NGC. I discovered there was a Type 1 and Type 2. Researching the types got me looking closer at the coin. I immediately noticed that something was different around the hand and shield. I stumbled on the site MeadowviewCollector links to. Holy expletive, it's a counterfeit.

Now I start wondering if the scratches across "one dime" were meant to indicate with disgust that somebody got ripped off, and perhaps it was even my ancestor who pulled it from circulation. From the wear it would appear that it got spent to death. I can't believe they went to the trouble trying to reed the rims, such as it is.

MS66 versus mine, with annotations:

* The spacing in the vertical bars in the shield is way off, especially noticeable lower right
* The top of the rock Liberty sits on curves into the top of the banner in the real version, and more abruptly intersects the bottom of the banner in the fake
* There are 36 denticles across UNITED STATES in the real coin, 33 in the fake
* S in STATES appears doubled in my fake
* TA in STATES
* Lower left serif in last A in AMERICA
* Orientation and spacing of digits in 1861
* 11 denticles below 1861 versus 10


* Lots of stuff on the reverse, but most blatant is the missing shaft of seeds

Overall, a convincing 150 year old counterfeit. Had me fooled for 44 years!

I like the freelance vegetation on the wreath. This is Grandma Moses quality Americana.

TypeCoin, the musket is still with my aunt, along with various other rifles. Haven't seen them in 20+ years and my cousin will probably end up with them. I only got one-fifth of the coins 44 years ago and the rest of them have no interest in their collections, which is a shame.

Can't really find a whole lot about these 1861s on the internet. I agree mine is likely 1861-101 in MeadowView's link, described as "by far the most common counterfeit Seated dime". I can only find one for sale http://www.seateddimevarieties.com/...ts/bogo.htm) and at $65 in claimed "VG-F" condition, indeed it appears to be more valuable than the real McCoy at $15-20 trend in similar condition. I think mine is slightly better condition than the one for sale. It's been fun doing a bit of research. I had no idea there were so many Seated Liberty dime counterfeits. Didn't see anything about die rotation on the 1861-101; mine is about 90 degrees. Maybe they're all like that.