1873 Open 3 $1 Gold And 1855 $1 Gold Type 2 For Grading

The first coin is fake. I would suspect the second coin given its company, but it looks probably genuine from the pictures.

Unfortunately, that does not mean anything with these Middle-Eastern fake gold coins from the 1960's and 1970's. They can be fairly high quality, and I have seen them fool dealers and even TPGs before.

Your coin is a Middle-Eastern die transfer counterfeit mean to fool tourists and European dealers while being a tax-free precious metal commodity. I have circled all of the problem areas that I can see. With the exception of the one on the rim at 6:30, all the circles represent depressions. These are concave pits of uniform luster texture and no raised metal around them. They are caused by knicks and bagmarks being transferred from the host coin to the counterfeit die.

The thing circled at 6:30 on the obverse rim is a spike. It is a toolmark from when the counterfeiter was working on the die. This alone can usually condemn any gold coin as fake.

Your coin also looks PL. That is another bad sign, considering that there were over 123,000 of these minted. The counterfeiters liked to polish their dies so that the resulting coin looked PL and thus more attractive. The PL characteristic was usually completely gone after 2000-4000 strikes on a die, so it seems statistically unlikely that you would find a PL 1873 Open 3 dollar.

Well luckily I have a good relationship with my guy, that if there is a chance it's fake I'll get my $ back. I'm gonna send the two gold and a few other coins to NGC Monday. We shall see. I'm gonna retake the photos in natural light and see what you think, the glare/proof like look could've been from my lighting. My iPad camera didn't take these photos. I'll post new pics later

I still see the depressions, and they still scare me. I wish I had this one in hand.

Tom didn't have any certified gold. Only raw but I trust his judgement as I have dealt with him for several years

"Tom" needs to get with the times. I'm an old guy too, and back in the late 1980s when slabbing was taking hold of the coin market, I resisted also. Later I had to give in.

Today a classic coin, which amounts to anything, that is still raw sets off alarm bells in my head. "Why is this coin NOT certifed?" Quite often if you look long enough you will see why.

I've been collector for over 55 years and was a dealer for 12 years. I can spot most counterfeits and problems, but I'm not perfect. At least when it's slabbed you have recourse either with the dealer or the grading company. I have used that rounte once, and it worked out for me when I stupidly bought a gold coin that had been treated with iodine to make it look old and "crusty."