Counterfeit 1843 seated liberty half dollar!!!

[Evolution]

Found yesterday but I just got my camera up and running today so since there's no "yesterday's finds" section I'm posting it today...Lol. This coin rang up as a choppy button type signal before I dug it. It was an inconsistent mid 40's VDI on my VX3 and I was totally expecting it to be a shotgun shell. After it came up out of the hole the VDI was a consistent 50 so I was still thinking shotgun shell or maybe button. Then I moved a bit of dirt and saw a round object so I was now thinking definitely a button... It was holed twice and appears to be made out of pewter. I wasn't even thinking it was a coin when I put it in my pouch. Since it didn't appear to be copper and certainly wasn't silver I wrote it off as a washer. I didn't discover what it was until I washed it off a bit with water back at my truck. I also went out for a hunt today. Found a broken Crotal bell. (all I ever seem to find are broken ones) Also found a copper that read at a 79 VDI on the VX3 which usually indicates colonial.. large cents are in the 83/84 range. Can't get any detail off of it yet but I'll put it in peroxide for a while and see what happens. It's certainly not going to make it any worse.

 

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[recondigger]

That's great find I wonder if the guy that made that thought he could pass it off as real.

 

[Evolution]

That's great find I wonder if the guy that made that thought he could pass it off as real.

I was wondering the same thing. I can't see how that coin ever would have looked good enough to pass off as real before the holes were put in it. Two holes in the same coin is odd. I've seen one hole in a coin so many times but never two holes. (although now that I think of it, sometimes two holes were put into a coin to make it into a Whizzer for kids to play with long ago, so I guess that statement wasn't accurate) Maybe somebody holed it on purpose so it couldn't be spent and then chucked it out in the yard.... surely not the same person who made the coin.

 

[recondigger]

I have a couple whizzers its holes are in the center i have never seen one with holes like that. It could be I don't know it all my wife reminds me about every other day.. Lol I think it could have just some guy with nothing better to do. I have a large cent just like it I found a long time ago. I think the lack of TV and the Internet had something to do with it

 

[Iron Patch]

That's great find I wonder if the guy that made that thought he could pass it off as real.

Would have looked MUCH better when he made it. Just think about a modern reproduction with silver plate... the main difference here is the ground action.

 

[Jeff H]

That is a really cool find !

 

[WHADIFIND]

I found one of those fake halves before. Mine did still look a little bit silver though. I was just completely corroded like no silver coin would be, even after 120 years in the ground.

It brought a picture to my mind. The guy who last owned the half just found out it was fake and winged it just as far as he could throw! LOL

That's why I found it.

 

[Evolution]

Here's a few close ups of the coin. The back is toast. Virtually unidentifiable.

 

[recondigger]

Would have looked MUCH better when he made it. Just think about a modern reproduction with silver plate... the main difference here is the ground action.

True

 

[CMDiamonddawg]

I found one of those fake halves before. Mine did still look a little bit silver though. I was just completely corroded like no silver coin would be, even after 120 years in the ground.

It brought a picture to my mind. The guy who last owned the half just found out it was fake and winged it just as far as he could throw! LOL

That's why I found it.

your right , getting smoked with a counterfeit would be a good reason to toss that .


A most Interesting find

 

[oldsalty19]

 

[Don in SJ]

Seen a few pewter counterfeit halves posted over the years, I found a very rotten pewter Bust Half many years ago, only spraying lacquer has saved what little is left of mine, it just wanted to crumble away to nothing. I too thought it was not a coin, did not notice the bust and date till I got back to my truck. (date went almost completly by the time I got home...........Now I also found a pewter KGII Halfpenny, which that would be noticeable, since Halfpence were copper, not silver.

 

[prolab69]

Heres a pewter large cent i dug a few years ago, notice how its facing right.

 

[WHADIFIND]

Heres a pewter large cent i dug a few years ago, notice how its facing right.

Have to pass that off on someone with dyslexia.

Dyslexics of the world, UNTIE!

 

[granthansen]

That's awesome!!!

 

[Evolution]

Heres a pewter large cent i dug a few years ago, notice how its facing right.

That's so cool. You must have looked at it when you found it and said "What the Heck?"

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Seen a few pewter counterfeit halves posted over the years, I found a very rotten pewter Bust Half many years ago, only spraying lacquer has saved what little is left of mine, it just wanted to crumble away to nothing. I too thought it was not a coin, did not notice the bust and date till I got back to my truck. (date went almost completly by the time I got home...........Now I also found a pewter KGII Halfpenny, which that would be noticeable, since Halfpence were copper, not silver.

Here's one of my favorite counterfeit colonial coins. It's a pewter 1745 British shilling with "LIMA" under the bust. The authentic shillings were made from spanish silver seized at Lima, Peru, and were only minted during 1745 and 46. The fake came in around the nickle range (about 25 on my old XLT). I found it very early in my detecting career at a site that produced my first Virginia halfpenny and other colonial stuff, so this has to be a period fake. I'll have to admit that when I first dug it I had no idea what it was, and it took me a while to figure it out.

 

[Evolution]

Here's one of my favorite counterfeit colonial coins. It's a pewter 1745 British shilling with "LIMA" under the bust. The authentic shillings were made from spanish silver seized at Lima, Peru, and were only minted during 1745 and 46. The fake came in around the nickle range (about 25 on my old XLT). I found it very early in my detecting career at a site that produced my first Virginia halfpenny and other colonial stuff, so this has to be a period fake. I'll have to admit that when I first dug it I had no idea what it was, and it took me a while to figure it out.

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Wow. That's in great shape for a pewter counterfeit coin. Very cool! It's true that you just never know what will come out of the ground. Thanks for the reply.