My Latest Fantasy Counterfeit 8R

Tonight I won a beautiful example of a "Barbaric" forgery. This is one of my favorite subcategories of forgeries. The name was used first (to my knowledge) by Calbetto when he categorized the "other" 8R varieties. He attributed them to rural populations composed of Indians or others who could not read and he dubbed them Barbaric or Unskilled Copies.

The counterfeits in this group are often called Fantasy Counterfeits to distinguish them from the more mundane forgeries which look more or less like the original issues, but that is an incorrect term.

To me a fantasy includes any number of coins that were NEVER actually made by any country - but which might have been. The group includes coins with dates for which coins were never issued. Or mint marks using letters that never were used. Fantasy coins usually appear to resemble known types and denominations but there is a major deviation from the real thing. For example a Crown dated 1936 with King Edward VIII's portrait claiming to be from New Zealand would be a Fantasy coin. It is a coin that never existed. Fantasy issues can become forgeries by placing them in circulation or they may be souvenirs. That is a use they are put to not a description of what they are.

A Barbaric counterfeit on the other hand refers to a CRUDE copy of a real circulating coin. The word Barbaric connotes UNSKILLED even childish designs and lettering.

In any event, here is a coin I call a Barbaric Counterfeit. It is the second example of this die pair I have encountered. I was particularly interested in this copy because the feathering of the eagle is completely visible - something which is lacking on the other example.

The coin was test cut - I presume to see if it was worth melting, because NO WAY can I envision needing to cut into this coin to disclose the fraud.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...310240189054

Here is the coin itself just in case ebay decides to cancel another completed auction.