Trade Dollars - Anyone Care To Guess Authenticity?

Color, Patina, and Luster are really important, especially with cheap chinese counterfeits. Although, this can be a lot harder to detect on some of the better fakes out there.

All the reverses look the same. Look at the left wing when looking at the coin. Near the top there is a chip out of all the wings in the same spot. Amazing the same reverse die lasted for 5 years.

td5173, that's a great observation - I didn't catch that when I reviewed them!

Yup those are fake.

and then please see links here for a matched set ly ( Ever hear about the slabs being forged? )
here on CCF......

All fakes. All six coins are from the same reverse die, a type 1 die, a type that they didn't use after about 1876. So the 77 and 78 coins have to be fakes,and since all the coins are from the same die, they are all fakes. There are some other features that point to them being fakes. Another "interesting" point is that on the 77 and 78 coins the obverse die has a type 2 ribbon, but a type 1 hand. This only occurs on a transitional variety from Philadelphia in 1876.

Well they sold 6 fakes for $4,200 plus 15 to 20% buyers premium. I like how in their terms of sale they try to specifically make the buyers responsible for the authenticity and how all the sales are final even if they aren't real. I hope the buyers "test" those terms. OK in their general terms it turns out they claim to be operating like ebay, just a venue and the auction is between the buyer and the consignor. But since they have on-site bidding as well as internet I'm not sure how they handle that.

I would think that the buyers are going to have a tough time getting their $5k back. The auction house disclaims responsibility, and the consignors are anonymous. Read as SOL. Oh wait they only accept Credit Cards for payment. They say they don't accept chargebacks but I don't think the Credit Card companies will give them much choice about that. So the buyers do have a way to get their money back, if they act quickly.

All raw Trade dollars are fake until proven otherwise as far as I'm concerned.

I would love to add a Trade dollar to my collection, however, because of the number of fakes, I would only purchase from a reputable dealer that would 100% back that purchase.

The thing with Trade dollars is that there really aren't many raw examples out there. I agree with "if it isn't attributed, it's probaly a counterfeit". And as far as attributed coins go, if one of the big three didn't attribute it, it's counterfeit. But I don't stop there with my suspicions, it still needs to come from a dealer that backs my purchase 100%.

Am I paranoid? No. I'm realistic. Raw Trade dollars just are not seen hardly ever. I'm a music man and as such I understand how go fakes can overrun a market with demand. There are more 1959 Fender Stratocaster guitars on the market at any given time than was ever manufactured. This persists because people buy them. And like rare coins, they don't come forward and admit to being burned. Instead, they pass on the crime and resell to the next poor soul that is willing to buy, in hopes they don't have the knowledge to know better.

There are a lot of young folks inheriting treasures that are little more than expensive wishes and misplaced good intentions.

Knowledge is power. Be learned. Be aware. And don't go into anything without backup. Membership here gives you the tools to avoid being scammed. Thank goodness.