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Replies: 7 / Views: 2,415 |
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New Member
United States
24 Posts |
I have about 4 1902 Morgan Silvers inherited from my grandfather. They have a small "o" on the back--New Orleans. BUT, PCGS uncovered a large amount of 'COUNTERFEIT micro o's and no longer grade them. In their newsletter, they state the counterfeit are "highly collectable" and were minted somewhere from the early 1900s to the 1940s. HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE A REAL ONE OR A COUNTEREIT?
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
It's easy - there are no real ones. They're all counterfeit. They were made long ago, though, and are of high enough quality that it was only recently they've been discovered to be fakes. They have retained their VAM numbers because of their popularity. During the first half of the century, silver traded in the open market at a much lower price than the "official" price. A silver dollar could contain less than 50 cents worth of silver. It was a pretty good incentive to counterfeit silver dollars with real silver. In fact, some of these have been found to have a higher silver content than real Morgans.
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New Member
 United States
24 Posts |
Then what's the difference between a regular "o" and a micro "o"? What is the physical difference?
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
The size of the "o." Micro O's are noticeably smaller than regular ones - if you've seen more than two or three New Orleans Morgans, you'll be able to identify Micro O's on sight.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
yep the only micro MM on the morgan is the 1921-D MM. If you look at a 1921-D you will see what a micro mint mark looks like. The micro O is very small and every one of them are counterfeit. I think the ones most people look for are the ones that are still graded by PCGS from back when they did authenticate them before they were found to be counterfeit. Some of them weren't turned in to PCGS for their guarantee and get pad back for them and those allot of collectors look for because its still a part of PCGS history and they will never slab more of them
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
Actually there were a couple of legitimate "Micro O" years - 1880 and 1899. One of the real 1889-O Micro O reverses was the model reverse for the counterfeits dated 1896, 1900 and 1902. All three use the same reverse, which was the "smoking gun" proof that all were fake. There's no way a single Morgan reverse die could have been used in 4 different mintage years.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
I meant there were no 1902 micro O when I said that, I just left out the date, sorry about that
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Pillar of the Community
United States
709 Posts |
WWW.vamsandmore.com have for sale an excellent 1902-O attribution guide by Alan Scott. it is well worth the money. Absent that, Unless you post a picture of the obverse and reverse, none of us will be able to help attributted your coins.
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Replies: 7 / Views: 2,415 |
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