Gtg: "1861" 3 Cent Silver

Pure acetone, gently applied, won't hurt.

But the green spots on the obverse looks like corrosion, rather than PVC damage, so it might not lift it. Make me wrong and shoot another photo afterwards with the green gone, and ill be happy to be wrong.

It's a contemporary counterfeit. Do not clean the coin! These are actually collectible.

Once you've seen a bunch of 3CS, it becomes immediately apparent that it's "off". Take a close look a the devices and compare with a good coin; they're very crude. Usually these are made from German silver or "pot metal".

If anything those devices and the strike is a lot more even and strong in comparison to an average circulated 1861.

Not seeing this as any kind of counterfeit.

Sorry MoxKing, this is clearly a contemporary counterfeit - and I bought it knowing that .

/1/ The weight is light, too light (0.0704g vs. 0.75g) to be genuine.

/2/ On genuine pieces the lines of the star outline are perfectly straight and meet at sharp, 72 degree angles. The star never extends into the lettering, and the reverse stars are even and equal on genuine pieces.

/3/ It's an exact match for TCS-3/D in Flynn & Zach's book (The Authoritative Reference on Three Cent Silver Coins, Amazon)

This one is well struck which makes the small notch on the NW curl of the "C" clearly visible as a pick-up-point.

The book says it's silver, probably not 0.900 fine. I'm guessing that in the 1870s with silver prices back to their pre-civil war $1.30/oz, it was marginally profitable to make debased silver counterfeits.

Contemporary Counterfeits are collectable, but there aren't a lot of collectors and there's not a lot of information available. And they are somewhere between rare and uncommon. The left overs weren't melted in the 1870s through 1930s like the genuine articles, but they suffered all of the other attritions (loss, damage, destruction as counterfeit...).

See here for a thread on another one - http://goccf.com/t/176685 - I know of somebody who has five examples of that in different 'die states'.

Thank you very much for that education. I've studied the areas of the details you've pointed out and I will remember.

I completely missed the star outline overlay. Easy to see once it's pointed out.

Right... but remember these are 14mm (tiny) and in the hurly burly of the market place they just have to sort of look familiar. How often do you really look at your change?

Wow. I believe I have one. Interesting information.
My picture taking are worthless.
The big Michigan show is after Thanksgiving. Hope to see Mike Diamond.