Weird 1845 Seated Liberty Trade Dollar

This thread just further reinforces my fears for numismatics. Incredible!

The "in resemblance" part is what gets me wondering. This coin certainly resembles a real coin. In fact, it actually resembles two real coins. But no, it's just a "fantasy" coin. Fine. What if it looked exactly like a real Liberty Seated dollar, except that it was dated one year before or one year after such coins were actually minted? Still not an exact duplicate, but some might still say the resemblance was uncanny. What if it looked exactly like a real Liberty Seated dollar and had a legitimate date, but it had a missing or extra mint mark? Still "just" a fantasy coin?

Let's take it a step further (or in a slightly different direction, at least). What about a coin that has all the proper elements of a real Liberty Seated dollar, but is just very poorly executed. If the design is so bad that it's obviously a fake to any knowledgeable collector, it obviously doesn't "resemble" the real thing very much and probably would resemble it far less than one that simply had an "impossible" date or mint mark.

Where do you draw the line?

Personally, I think that any attempt to make a coin that looks at all like a real coin, regardless of the differences between it and the real coin, is a counterfeit made with the intent to deceive the ignorant. And even if the person making it claims to "just" be making a "fantasy" coin with no intent to deceive, once the coin leaves his hands there is no way to control how it will be represented down the line.

Exactly. The day after the first coin was struck, someone made a fake one. While it seems like there is a great influx of counterfeit coins. I personally believe it's just the fact the world has become so small nowadays since the internet has made finding anything possible with the click of a button. This is a double edge sword. I can get anything counterfeit in a matter of minutes, but at the same time I have thousands of ways to determine if a coin is counterfeit or not.

In the end if you are truly a collector you should know what you are buying. If you don't want to take the time to study and just throw money around it's basically your own fault if you get taken. This holds true for anything though. My wife loves UGG boots and coach bags there are tons of fakes out there. I had to educate myself of what is and isn't real before I started buying them for her.

Yep, definitely a Morgan reverse.