1874 S Trade Dollar Guaranteed Authenticity.. What Do You Think?

Penny smart dollar dumb, but people have free will. If they want to risk their money on their feelings that is their right. I'd rather advise people on how to have the best chance of protecting themselves.

Do you say that to your doctor as well? What about mechanic, construction company, dentist, eye doctor, electrician, plumber etc.?

Keep coming back Mrulon. This site is for sharing and learning. You get people from all walks of life. Some are totally dependent on others for everything, and some enjoy studying to become successfully self sufficient. Being a former teacher, I lived a life of trying to educate my students to be able to stand on their own two feet. People from my generation tend to be this way moreso than modern times.

Whenever I share information, I will give either exact references when asked or else will, like with the diagram above, give repeatable, verifiable proof. As shown above, detecting a counterfeit, most of the time, is something a collector can easily do for themselves using the right tools.

Remember there have been fakes that have fooled absolutely everyone over the years. Also remember "professional" services have slabbed fakes as well (and do their best to make good on it when their error is discovered).

This is why the majority of CCF people hold to the common sense wisdom of "Buy the coin and not the holder."

Just for fun, the "Omega Man" Counterfeits are said to be the best counterfeits ever made (google for a fascinating history). These fakes got by all the experts for quite awhile.

Yet below we ave an Omega 1882 $3.00 coin (see reference for source of original picture) made transparent and overlaid onto a genuine (see included source) 1882 $3.00 gold coin. Note explanation of reference point for aligning was the profile in this case. Note how easy this method makes telling a fake from everything else becoming misaligned.



Here is the same analysis but this time the fake's overlay was aligned using the term "OF" as a reference.



Granted people back in the 70s did not have access to graphics tools that make this easy to do. So no wonder these fakes were not discovered easily. But nowadays identifying them as fakes takes anyone who has a computer, can google to find images, and learns how easy it is to make an overlay with a graphics program. Doing this kind of analysis is well within the grasp of mere mortals.

Welcome to Mount Olympus

BTW - zoom in on these pics to see how bad even the very best fakes are/were made.

I became disabled with POTS so my career was cut short after 20 years. Leaving teaching was akin to me losing an arm or leg. I never worked a day in my life as I loved the profession enough I actually looked forward to Monday mornings - it was all paid vacation spending my time with "my kids" (6th-12th at various times).

I miss my kids, but have many who still keep in touch. My wife and I are "Mom and Dad" as well as "Grandma and Grandpa" to several other-than-blood-relatives.

And just think if even the pros doing it every day are fooled once in a blue moon how many people who think they can do it all themselves are fooled. This is especially true for type collectors. The best thing a collector can do is learn their limitations and not think they can do everything themselves.