madfranks
Full Member
- May 15, 2006
- 167
- 4
- Detector(s) used
- Tesoro Vaquero
Hi Everyone! I know I haven't posted for a while, that's because we've had a really snowy and cold winter so far here in Colorado (we're about to break the record for most cumulative days with snow on the ground), plus I'm back in school again and it's just been busy, savvy?
OK so here's where the story starts. I was shopping around on Ebay and discovered an auction for an 1876 Trade Dollar for the buy-it-now price of GBP $2.50, which translates roughly into five dollars and change. Hmmm, I thought, could be either someone who really doesn't know what they have, or it's a fake. Well I thought the risk would be worth it, so I bought it and now I have it in hand and I can't tell whether or not it's a fake. The auction location was from Beijing, China, which raised a red flag since I know that alot of pirated and counterfeit merchandise comes out of China, but if you know anything about Trade Dollars you know that they were minted and created for the express purpose of being shipped to the Orient to compete with other foriegn currency at the time. Many Trade Dollars have Chineese figures stamped on them, called "chop marks", but the coin is worth more if it's free of those marks. Anyway, when I recieved the coin, it turns out to be an 1876-CC dollar; the CC stands for Carson City, which is the most sought after and rare mintmark for coins of that day. The person selling the coin didn't mention that it had a CC mintmark, nor did he show a picture of the reverse of the coin, so it was a surprise to me, and it also adds credence to the idea that the person selling it didn't know what he had.
Alright so I went to my local coin dealer to see what he would say, and when I told him I got the coin from China, he didn't even look at the coin but said with certainty, "it's a fake". Needless to say I was not satisfied with that answer, because just because a coin comes from China doesn't automatically make it fake, especially the Trade Dollars. So I'm going to take it to another dealer and see what he thinks. If I don't get an honest answer I'll think about having it professionally graded. Does anyone here have any ideas to how I might be able to figure this out?
OK so here's where the story starts. I was shopping around on Ebay and discovered an auction for an 1876 Trade Dollar for the buy-it-now price of GBP $2.50, which translates roughly into five dollars and change. Hmmm, I thought, could be either someone who really doesn't know what they have, or it's a fake. Well I thought the risk would be worth it, so I bought it and now I have it in hand and I can't tell whether or not it's a fake. The auction location was from Beijing, China, which raised a red flag since I know that alot of pirated and counterfeit merchandise comes out of China, but if you know anything about Trade Dollars you know that they were minted and created for the express purpose of being shipped to the Orient to compete with other foriegn currency at the time. Many Trade Dollars have Chineese figures stamped on them, called "chop marks", but the coin is worth more if it's free of those marks. Anyway, when I recieved the coin, it turns out to be an 1876-CC dollar; the CC stands for Carson City, which is the most sought after and rare mintmark for coins of that day. The person selling the coin didn't mention that it had a CC mintmark, nor did he show a picture of the reverse of the coin, so it was a surprise to me, and it also adds credence to the idea that the person selling it didn't know what he had.
Alright so I went to my local coin dealer to see what he would say, and when I told him I got the coin from China, he didn't even look at the coin but said with certainty, "it's a fake". Needless to say I was not satisfied with that answer, because just because a coin comes from China doesn't automatically make it fake, especially the Trade Dollars. So I'm going to take it to another dealer and see what he thinks. If I don't get an honest answer I'll think about having it professionally graded. Does anyone here have any ideas to how I might be able to figure this out?
