Diane, I have reviewed the scans you posted and I don't see anything that jumps right out indicating you have one of the numerous counterfeits. That said - I would definitely like to see the third die. One of the most difficult "sides" of a coin to replicate is the edge. Most coin authenticators look at the edge first. It iften makes looking at the obverse and reverse unnecessary.
There are numerous methods used to place reeds on the edge of a coin but only ONE correct way in the case of the
Trade dollar. The reeds are applied with a collar die that forms the outer perimeter of the striking (or coining) chamber of the press. When the planchet enters the space between the dies a collar die rises to enclose the planchet and the force of the strike extrudes the coin metal into the reeds forming the edge at the same instant the rest of the coin is made. This makes the edge distinctive and means that only certain kinds of "errors" can be seen on the edge.
Counterfeits on the other hand have the edges applied in many different ways. I will list a few of the ways.
1.
A collar die - Yes unfortunately some of the best made forgeries do actually use a collar die but they are in the minority.
2.
No edge at all - This does happen more than you would think so check. It often displays a seam line from the casting process. This seam may be partially or completely ground off so look for filing marks.
3.
Hand cut reeds - Some earlier counterfeits were edged with a file and the reeds were cut in one at a time. They are triangular in cross section and are very irregular in spacing. Since this is a time consuming process, this points to an early forgery where labor costs were minimal versus the value of the coin.
4.
Rolled on edge - The counterfeiter rolls a reeded die against the edge of the coin or the planchet (in the case of a strike) either before or after the coin is produced. In the case of a casting, this allows the counterfeiter to hide the seam line or the file marks made by the seam removal. In a struck coin, a secondary step provides clues for detection. A real coin has a continuous struck surface on all three sides - but when the edge is applied AFTER the coin is made - the edge reeds will cause a distortion of the surfaces at the intersection. (You only have to watch for ejection damage on originals but that is on one side not both). A pre edged planchet will have a reversed distortion of the reeded edge by the strike. The rolled on edge will also have one or more OVERLAPS in the reeding. This is the easist counterfeit feature to spot.
ANY COIN WITH AN OVERLAP IN THE REEDS IS FAKE.There may be one or more overlaps depending on the technology used to edge the coin.
5.
Ring die - This is the most common technique used in the mass production of counterfeits - epecially the Chinese Injection Molded copies. The completed coin is taken from the mold and the edge is ground down to remove the seam, sprue and vent traces. Once it is smoothed it is forced - usually in a stack along with several other coins) through a groved ring die. This methods means there may be no overlap (unless they have a poor ring die) but invariably the pressure is not perfectly uniform around the entire perimeter. Wherever the pressure is lowest - the metal may not push all the way to the bottom of the die groves - leaving a reed that has a concave top which sometimes actually shows metal curving inward toward the center of the top of the reed. Also at the ends of the reed where pressure drops rapidly this often makes the reed look like it SPLITS right near the end. (That is called a split tail reed). Also some small amount of metal tends to be dragged out toward the face of the coin on the "upstream" side of the coin as it leaves the ring die. This is often ground off by a final finishing step which rounds off the sharp corner of the coin. ROUNDED CORNERS ARE ALWAYS SUSPECT.
6.
Cast reeding - Some forgers making copies have tried to add reeds to the molds used to make the copies. This technique is ALWAYS easy to spot unless the forger tumble polishes the coin to a rather low grade. As you can visualize it requires a very specialized mold and very fine quality control not to be VERY obvious on the finished product.
Those are the main edge technologies used. There are many variables and this list could be expanded by "what ifs" to a very long length. But you should get the idea.
Also weigh the coin and have someone perform a Specific Gravity analysis. That is very helpful to quickly identify the off metal forgeries and the coin is not damaged. There are full weight silver forgeries however. These modern fakes are made for collectors and the value of the silver is minimal compared to the value as a coin - so real silver does not mean a real coin necessarily.
The ultimate test (for now anyway) is an XRF (Xray Flourescence) test which can assay the coin in a non-destructive way. You get a precise reading of the silver content but more importantly the alloy metals and the trace elements that should and SHOULD NOT be found in a
Trade dollar. These assays are of course not routinely published (I don't share my results totally) because a counterfeiter could add trace contaminants to his alloy to come up with essentially undetectable forgeries. For example - I specialize in Mexican Cap and Ray 8Rs and a real 8R from the Zacatecas mint in the mid 1830s WILL ALWAYS HAVE GOLD AS A CONTAMINANT. So a forger has to add gold to his mix or you can reject the end result as a fake in every case. The gold being there is now a well known fact, but the other trace contaminants are not as well known.
I hope this helps. If you have any questions about this just ask.
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Posted 06/26/2006 10:40 pm
