Fake Coins.

[MelvinWalker]

If a magnet picks it up, it's fake.
Best at home test is weight. Should weigh 26.73 grams, slightly less if well worn.

Magnetic coins are old news or poor fakes.....That's the 1970's way of detecting fake silver coins...Not any more. None of these fakes I posted above are magnetic.

.999 silver is diamagnetic, so it will react to a magnet in an opposite fashion. If you slide a real .999 coin down a magnet, it will have a tiny grip to the coin.

 

[RevV67]

My grandmother got me into coin collecting when I was around 8 years old. Back then, there were no "slabbed" coins, but some rare coins came with papers that included pictures of the coin and vouched for the coin's authenticity. The only coin like that I ever bought was a 1916-D Mercury dime. Saved lawn mowing and snow shoveling money for 2 years to buy that one!
Years later, I sent it to ANACS and they graded and slabbed it. A few years after that, I sold it to buy a gun.

Coin collecting has changed a lot since I was a kid, and not in a good way!
You USED to be safe buying slabbed coins, but now there are fake slabbed coins.

The fakes took a lot of the joy out of the hobby for me.
These days I get more joy out of Pb than Ag or Au.

 

[glowe]

I have several Morgan dollars. What is the best way to check if they are real? Do I have to take them to a coin expert or is there a test I can do myself?

I had to look that up myself. Seems that a test kit that works just like gold testing is available for under $20. Well worth the price if you need to authenticate many coins. Not all metals are magnetic. A couple that come to mind are certain types of stainless steel and titanium.

https://www.amazon.com/Silver-Jewelry-Sterling-Necklaces-Scratch/dp/B0C8ML2DRM/ref=asc_df_B0C8ML2DRM?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=79852219575128&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=94514&hvtargid=pla-4583451684590679&psc=1

 

[Dave.357]

This is something that has puzzled me. You can buy fake pre-1900 US coinage on Amazon. But aren't they still legal tender? If I was so foolish as to do it, I could take my 1880 Morgan silver dollar down to the store and buy a coke. Because it's still a legal United States $1 coin. Right?



So if they are making fake legal tender coins, isn't that counterfeiting? Shouldn't the secret service be involved?



I realize that Amazon is not making them, but they are still selling them. Doesn't that qualify as "passing counterfeit money"?

Not sure you can buy a Coke for a $1.00.

 

[diyj98]

I found an 1863 Morgan dollar, a rare year, in some junk in a friends estate. It looked correct with the age and wear you'd expect but the weight was off. I even ran it by a coin shop for my friends children and they verified that it was fake as well. I gave the coin back to his children and told them that I'd gotten a second opinion and it was 100% fake. I heard later that they sold it in the estate auction and somehow the part about it being fake wasn't mentioned by the auctioneer. Somebody ended up with several hundred dollars in a fake

 

[16thVACav]

I found an 1863 Morgan dollar, a rare year, in some junk in a friends estate. It looked correct with the age and wear you'd expect but the weight was off. I even ran it by a coin shop for my friends children and they verified that it was fake as well. I gave the coin back to his children and told them that I'd gotten a second opinion and it was 100% fake. I heard later that they sold it in the estate auction and somehow the part about it being fake wasn't mentioned by the auctioneer. Somebody ended up with several hundred dollars in a fake

The first clue it was fake was Morgan dollars began in 1878. 1863 was a Seated Liberty.

 

[MelvinWalker]

I found an 1863 Morgan dollar, a rare year, in some junk in a friends estate. It looked correct with the age and wear you'd expect but the weight was off. I even ran it by a coin shop for my friends children and they verified that it was fake as well. I gave the coin back to his children and told them that I'd gotten a second opinion and it was 100% fake. I heard later that they sold it in the estate auction and somehow the part about it being fake wasn't mentioned by the auctioneer. Somebody ended up with several hundred dollars in a fake

Impossible....Morgan silver dollars weren't even produced until 1878...

That's fifteen years earlier than that...1863 was the middle of the Civil War.

 

[65-2x2]

In the early 70s I had a friend that was a big coin collector and trader. He was also a rogue. He told us about making a higly collectable penny from a less collectable penny. Something to do with an SVDB if memory serves. We told old Jim that when he got caught at a show passing the fakes, he might not make it home. He died early, not from a disgruntled customer, but from cancer.

 

[diyj98]

Impossible....Morgan silver dollars weren't even produced until 1878...

That's fifteen years earlier than that...1863 was the middle of the Civil War.

Calm down. I had a typo. I meant 1893 which I believe is one of the, if not the rarest year.

 

[diyj98]

The first clue it was fake was Morgan dollars began in 1878. 1863 was a Seated Liberty.

Read my above post about the typo.

 

[greenwellg]

1895 was the rarest, proofs only. 50 years ago you could buy a house with one. Philly, no mint mark.

 

[Faulkner]

Not sure you can buy a Coke for a $1.00.

The local Dollar General has a soda machine out front that has Coke, Dr. Pepper, and Sprite in 12 oz cans for $1.00 each. Got a Pepsi machine sitting next to it with their products for a buck too, including Mt. Dew (which is hard for me to drive by and pass up a ice cold Mt. Dew on a hot day.)

 

[Dave.357]

The local Dollar General has a soda machine out front that has Coke, Dr. Pepper, and Sprite in 12 oz cans for $1.00 each. Got a Pepsi machine sitting next to it with their products for a buck too, including Mt. Dew (which is hard for me to drive by and pass up a ice cold Mt. Dew on a hot day.)

I think there is one about 20 miles from my
Place . Every thing has been $1.25
for a couple of years now. Don't
remember a pop machine but they
may have one.