Ez Pawn, For $400.

"The real coin weighed in at 26.7 grams. The fake was two grams lighter."

Dead giveaway. A dollar worn just about flat, to the point where it's barely identifiable as type, will only be about 10% light. Any detail at all won't be 7% light.

Thirty years ago, I bought all of the Chinese copper and brass cash coins that I could, provided they were less than 20 cents each. I reasoned that a counterfeiter would not bother with cash coins if they were selling at this price. I have about 200, going back to the times of the Wu Shu's.

Cash coins were very common in Australia at that price then, and most were left overs from Chinese immigrants into Australia from the Gold Rush days of the mid 19th Century.

These days, such coins market for $5 to $10 each for examples ranging back to the T'ang Dynasty and earlier, but I won't buy them, because I reason that a counterfeiter would be tempted to manufacture fakes for sale in this price range.

I think they had a question about their authenticity but thought they were maybe silver so they paid silver content price they pay and 20.00 wasn't bad

I can appreciate your point, Libertad, buying for metal. Yet, as is the case with many a transaction, it can be like a poker game, keeping one's cards close to the vest. This is especially true when a deal is upfront and personal, face-to-face. I wonder if the pawn shop guy tested for silver?

Then too, there are many dealers in coins who make mistakes, I know. One dealer who makes a darned good living at buying coins made the mistake of taking a counterfeit gold piece in trade, giving $2800.00 in return. Before making the deal, he showed the coin to a number of dealers at a show. Later, when he learned of his mistake, I overheard him tell another dealer, "If I don't do a deal like that, now and then, I'm not doing enough business." Talk about a great attitude! For every sad seller's story, I'm sure there's a similar one from the dealer's side of the table.

Pawn shops can be really squirrelly on how they buy/lend. A friend of mine managed a shop where someone pawned $500 in non-premium coins (Ikes, bicent coins, etc) for $400. Customer didn't want to lose the coins, and was willing to pay interest + storage.

The store owner griped about the deal. The manager had to explain the win-win. If the customer pays the interest/storage, which he did for about a year, the store makes 60% interest plus $4/mo storage. If he stops paying, they deposit the coins and make an instant $100 profit, guaranteed by the US gubmint.

If you watch Pawn Stars, notice the sign on the wall. They get 10% interest, or 120% a year. The margins they claim to work on the show are stupid. Like conder says, 25% of retail is typical for a loan price. If it's an instant resale item, like gold or silver scrap, they might pay 75-80% of what they can dump it for.

But paying $20,000 for a helicopter, shelling out another $100,000 to fix it, in the hopes it MIGHT bring $150,000 at some point, possibly years from now? Dumb.

Yes. The pawn shops I'm familiar with require the same info, pawn or sell. The software is already set up for inventory control, police reports, taxes, etc.

I've never heard of them asking for a phone number, the other stuff is required to come from state issued ID. Perhaps out of date, but not fictitious.