A Cob - Counterfeit - Forgery Or What?

I too would like to know Wienburg's take on the coin or comments.

I would also love to see the references to counterfeit coins taken from any original source documents.

These need to be broadcast so everyone knows what they say. Too many of these documents sit hidden away in private collections for decades between sales and the valuable information they contain is not utilized.

That is interesting that he passed on the coin but fortunate for me. It falls in the same general class of re-purposing such as using a Large cent for a clock gear or a washer. It is a re-use of a Federalist coin albeit for nefarious purposes.

It is now in my possession and I love it. I think it did in fact circulate after being re-stamped - there is significant wear on the 1R design. The host was a rather high grade coin so it had not circulated long before it was re-struck.

I have researched coin wear rates and studies are all over the place. The article with the shortes length of life indicated that a silver dime dropped from MS to F12 in just over a year! More conservative estimate run to as long as 10 years. So even using the very conservative figure of 10
years that would date the restrike at 1855 at the very latest. So for whatever reason, someone was testing dies for a 1 reale in the period of time just before they ceased being legal tender in the US (1857).

Does anyone who collects cobs know when the first reports of systematic collection began? Could collectors have shown enough interest in this series by 1855 to warrant a forger making these dies for the purposes of Numismatic forgery?