It ain't like it used to be. I'm 77. My Dad's friend was a branch bank manager back in the late 50's, early 60's. He would let my brother and I go into the vault and go through hundreds of rolls of coins and pick out the valuable ones as long as we replaced them with ones that were not worth so much. We found a lot of stuff. Indian head pennies. Scarce Lincoln cents, nickels, dimes, quarters, half dollars, and even silver dollars. All that stuff was still in circulation then and we picked out what we wanted at face value. All we had to do was replace what we took, which we did. Fast forward, those days are long over. I still have a lot of what I found 60+ years ago. Two years ago I went to a military show in Oklahoma at some Indian Reservation Casino. Nothing to do with the Tulsa Show. I ran into a guy there that had 75 Morgan dollars for $10.00 each. At the time silver was about $20.00 an ounce. I bought all of them for $750.00. After I bought them I took them to a coin guy that I knew from Louisiana and asked him what he thought. They passed the magnet test. He weighed them and all of them and they failed the test. The guy I bought them from was still there. I got one of the Indian Police Officers to go with me to his table and told him I wanted my money back. He said he didn't know they were fake and refunded me the money. The officer said it was beyond his expertise and no charges were filed. I got my money back but the seller put them back up for sale after the officer left. A few days ago a friend called me and said he had access to a very rare 1944 S steel penny. I told Jr. to check it out and he found a guy in China who was making those and the 1943 copper penny. A little more checking and we found fakes of any coin you can imagine. All pass the magnet test. All look authentic. The only difference is the weight and somebody will probably soon figure out how to get around that. I wonder if they can fake a registered magnum yet.

Lots of fake "silver" dollar coins. Every time I scroll through Facebook they are there. I've had some come in my pawnshop too, I make sure to weigh them. Like any other fakes, replicas, etc, if the price is too good, run away.

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Super Snooper

Charlie can you break that down into paragraphs or bullet points? It is so hard to read the way it is

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Retired IBEW, Local 134

Paragraphs, at your service.

Between injection molding, 3-D printing, Khyber Pass gunmakers, what can't be faked ? In Utah there is one Mark Hofmann, forger extraordinaire, forged a mintmark on a coin, it was accepted as genuine.
Make sure you do your homework. I have see pictures of a Chinese made Broomhandle Mauser copy marked "Wauser",others with garbled inscriptions, incorrect proof marks, saw pictures of Khyber Pass-made Lee Enfield SMLEs marked "VR"-Victoria Regina though that model was adopted several years after her passing.

China has been making fake US coins for years. I remember reading about them in Coin World almost 20 years ago.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

I went through my mother's safe after she went in the nursing home looking for a 2.50 gold piece that had been in the family for a lot of decades. I did not find it, but that is no surprise. My brother no doubt sold it to buy alcohol. He did that with many things.

What I did find was 2- 5 dollar gold pieces in a little box. I took them to my LGS ( Cranston Gun and Coin ). The father is a collector, and he checked them for dimensions and weight and assured me that they are real. They are extra fin condition. Good to hear.

He was telling me about fake coins from China. I had never heard of that, but I am sure it exists. Well, I lucked out. I also have about 15 pounds of silver dollars. A few are graded to very collectible, but the rest are just for melt value. Probably should check the price of silver. They may sell for the value of a nice firearm.

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Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

The usual suspects. I'm not surprised. There was a flood of counterfeit Gibson guitars in pawn shops till shop owners got wise. Again, from China.

If an item is valuable, trust that somebody is going to try to rip you off.

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"?

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I always take precautions

If you turn it over and it says "copy" on it, then they are within the legality of the law. So long as it plainly states somewhere that it is not genuine, you can get by with it. Ofcourse if you buy one and stick it in the appropriate Whitman album, you won't be able to see the side that says copy.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

The "ENTER" key is your friend.

The fakery industry really ramped up when silicone was introduced in Hollywood. Not necessarily a bad thing.

When My brother graduated High School (1969) he bought a $10 Gold Piece at a gun show. Two years later he needed cash and went to sell it. It was "kinda" fake. Not a real US coin, but real 22K Gold! It was from jewelry. Turned out it was worth more than he paid for it, just about the same as a real one.

That was a cast copy and none of the marking were crisp, like a struck coin.

Ivan

My local Coin Dealer has a box of fakes, including the fake Gold Chain I have posted.
Morgan dollars seem to be a Fav, also American Silver Eagles and other things, like Mexican Libertads.
I think his fake box has more Morgans than anything else.
I have compared the Fakes to Real ones and they look exactly alike!
The Fakes almost look ‘too good’ to be the age shown on them.
But this is complicated by lots of old Morgans were never actually in circulation. In collections or locked up in vaults.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

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?

HHHHMMMmmm!!!!

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S&W Accumulator

Unless you bought them within the past decade or two, they are probably legit. One way is to weigh them. You can use a powder scale if you or a friend reload. They should weigh 26.73 grams or about 412.507 grains.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

Are the fake ones heavier or lighter?

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protocalldesign.com

If you are referring to my above post about silicone, I believe further, robust testing is needed. I'm willing to do my part.

You neglected to include that Mark Hofmann has been in the Utah State Prison since January, 1987 convicted of two murders and one attempted murder! He was a forger, mostly duping the LDS Church with forged/faked historic documents related to church history! Now he is just another scumbag locked up for the rest of his life for his crimes!

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Gunsmithing since 1961

I would be, too, but my faith in oysters has been destroyed. Not long ago, I bought a dozen, and only six of them worked.

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Formerly Model520Fan

Usually lighter, but depending on material used, could go either way. I would be suspicious of anything more than a gram difference.

There are other things to look for, but it can be dependent on the date of the coin. A really good price (as someone already found out) should be an immediate warning flag. Prices are varied though, depending on the rarity of the coin.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!