Three Recent Counterfeits On Ebay

The following is an ebay auction for an EXCEPTIONALLY rare Counterfeit:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...m=8407006729

The coin is guaranteed to be an original by the seller but both the host coin AND the counterstamp are counterfeit. This is the first time this date has been observed and the dies are previously unrecorded. At present it is believed to be potentially Unique.

If you are wondering how to tell it is a fake? You can actually see the toned copper color where the Sheffield Plate has worn off. See the King's nose - the central portion of the shield opposite the punch and the two Pillars of Hercules.

Also, in case anyone feels sorry for the high bidder, he is a good friend and fellow counterfeit collector - so the price is fair to him. It is also fair to the seller since he likely would have received LESS for an original. Pretty good for a potentially Unique coin - but too rich for my blood. Plus, I really prefer the Cap and Ray counterfeits.

This is most likely a 1805 - 1810 era forgery and is far scarcer than most of the known dates of this series.

Here is one of my most recent wins, a rather scarce copy of the Riddell # 248 - the coin is a very reasonable copy of an 1836 Zs OM 8 Reale - a Cap and Ray type - which was highly successful for the forger. Not so successful for the person taken, because it has about 17 cents worth of silver in it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...m=8406428724

In this case, like the one above, the seller didn't know it was a forgery. It is also a Sheffield Plate coin and dates to the period before 1844 because it is included in the "Monograph of the Silver Dollar". The plate is far thinnner than the first example. In this case, I also had to beat out another counterfeit collector - so the final price is accurate for a forgery. The price in this case is roughly EQUAL to an original in the same condition.

Both of these counterfeits are in my opinion completely legal to possess because both were demonetized in the US in 1857 and both were made before that date.

I also won a second counterfeit on ebay which falls in the "Numismatic Forgery" Class. This one was made to fool Novice Coin Collectors.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...m=8406577950

In this case, the seller tried to be up front about the coin, but got his "facts" a bit mixed up. He calls it a circulating counterfeit. A novice might believe that but most counterfeit collectors know better. So his description "Counterfeit" kept the newbies away. By scaring off the bidders looking for real 8 Reale coins, it made it available to guys like me. That is fortunate since this coin is essentially WORTHLESS. This is a Vietnam War era forgery made to sell to GIs in the far east for a buck. It is well known to collectors of counterfeits and it is EXTREMELY COMMON. I always bid a few dollars on coins like this to keep them OFF the secondary market.

But this too is a "Legal" forgery to possess without the word "COPY" since it was produced before 1973.

So the three coins above fall into different classes of counterfeits and also represent the three tiers of value to knowledgable collectors of counterfeits.