Confederate One Cent Coin - Real or Fake?

starwarsblazer

Sr. Member
Jul 24, 2007
357
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Portland, Michigan
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Minelab Explorer II
I obtained this Confederate one cent coin this past summer in my change. I checked online as I had never seen one before and found that the newer ones were all labeled with 'copy' on the reverse side. This one does not have 'copy' on it anywhere. I am hesitant to think it is one of the original 55 minted, but you never know. It is a cool find anyway. I have already sent pics to ANA and they haven't replied yet, but any help on here would be appreciated. Thanks!

Greg
 

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Hi Greg!

Great looking coin, but sadly, I think it's a fake. I went to CoinFacts.com to look up your coin. Below, I've put a side by side picture of a known real coin, and yours.

ConfederateCent-Compress.jpg

If you look closely, there are a bunch of inconsistancies.

1. Cap is not curled properly at the end.
2. The lettering is not the same font style
3. The nose and smile is different
4. The stars seem weird. The original, the stars almost appear to be inset.. the good one is out. Strange.
5. The hair under the cap is different all around.
6. Yours is missing the period at the end of the word America


Now the BACK of the coin has some obvious differences as well.

ConfederateCent - Back-Compress.jpg

1. The most obvious difference is how the number 1 appears. Very different.
2. The ribbon at the bottom is different.
3. The wreath, and it's decorations are completely different as well.


I believe your coin to be a replica of the original. Close job, but sadly, I think fake.

Nice coin either way though!
 

I pulled one of those from a river and researched frantically thinking I'd just found my "retirement: coin. Looks like someone tried to fashion mine into a button.
 

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Dang senor chico rico, yours actually looks a lot like the real one. Have you had it checked out to confirm that it is a fake?? Good luck,,, Gpurs..
 

Yeah Mon,

Several inspections and looking at the reverse and seeing the two canceled marks(or cracks) on the die confirms it.
"Probably" a restrike from, I believe I was told 1973 from a fellow named Barstow. The dies are now in the Smithsonian though canceled and all.
So the restrike was from a feller who purchased the dies and made restrikes so mine was pressed by the same one that pressed the real deal but later...At least that's what I was told.
 

Actually the original dies were too deteriorated to use so transfer dies were made. These were the dies used to make the new coins.
 

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