I got a great deal on this Peace dollar. I thought I could conserve it, but after removing the ash stains with MS70, I noticed a few problems. 1. There were no bag marks. 2. The surface was not quite right. 3. The dot between "E" and "PLURIBUS" is completely missing. 4. The eagle feathers had more depth in the design. It also failed to weigh as much as a real Peace dollar. The seller has a lot of stuff for sale and none of it is coin, so I think they didn't know. They processed my return request and hopefully will not be trying to sell it as real again! Reverse of fake peace dollar after conservation work. Fake on top Real in slab, fake on top Real Fake
Good sleuthing. Sort of scary how close to legit it looks. I really need to start being more careful, and critical.
And what's the lesson here? "Always buy your common-date Peace dollars slabbed!" No, that's not it... I think there are several lessons: 1) Know how to authenticate coins yourself. The OP clearly picked up on the issues with this coin as soon as he got it; well done. 2) If you're buying PM coins in particular, get an adequate scale, and learn to use it. I prefer to weigh things in grams, but that's just me. OP's scale is clearly up to the task. (Don't forget to check the coin's thickness, too; I've gotten fakes with the correct weight, but about 10% too thick. That's what you get with silver plating over a copper core.) 3) Don't blindly trust an unfamiliar seller. They may be trying to deceive you, or they may be simply clueless. I've encountered plenty of both on eBay. 4) Understand the eBay Buyer Protection policy, and use it promptly when appropriate. Keep watching. Every once in a while, true bargains do still appear on eBay. You've just got to be the first one to spot them (if they're BIN), or the only one to spot them (if they're auctions)...
It scares me a bit to think I almost missed it. I had no suspicion until after being amazed at my good luck getting a coin with such great detail and no bag marks.
Dont send it back to the seller and they won't be able to sell it again. Good example to keep for reference. Did you do a magnet test? 90% silver coins can be munipulated around the countertop with good a magnet. Courious about the diameter, thickness and metal composition
Also the letters on the fake are thin and spindly - in my experience a common feature of many far eastern fakes (not just fake Peace dollars)
And the beat goes on and on and on. Where there is profit there will be crime! An eye opener, thanks for the sharing the coin and information. Good luck.
It was non-magnetic. Can't measure it now, but it didn't seem to have unusual dimensions. If it was sized different, it was still pretty close.
"eCove" policy was/is at least to ME: you must RETURN the item to the seller! Yea, and I think I saw it here that a seller "could" resell it, but a note to "eCove" that it was 'fake' might help-but I wouldn't count on it. I had three sellers tell me that they didn't give a 'darn hoot' (sic) about giving them a 'negative rating'. That's why regretably I have indefinately given up collecting for now. I am more mad at the darn judge who went out of his way to find an obscure case to toss me out. It will be another six years before I can deal with that!
If you go on Facebook, there are a ton of counterfeit coins being sold. Anything from Morgan dollars to silver eagles. Really Cheaply too. The sell price puts up a red flag right away. Why would someone sell silver coins for less than spot if they were real? You could scrap them and get more money.
There are lots of people who know how to sell on eBay or FB, but wouldn't know how to find a scrapper. They may have gone to a "WE BUY GOLD" roadshow and gotten offered 1/3 of melt. Most cheap coins on either site are fake, but don't underestimate the will of sellers to act irrationally. I remember the bank teller who tried to tell a little old lady to take her Morgans to a dealer, instead of cashing them in for face value. She said she "didn't trust coin dealers". As long as there are people happy to get face value, there will be people happy to get much less than melt.
The ones on Facebook know exactly what they're selling. Some even steal good dealer's logos to make them look better. I can tell many are from China. Many don't use American grammar. One even claims to be selling complete sets of Morgan dollars. 27 coins and all look the same. A complete set is way more than 27 coins. If you want to have some fun check out some of the people that give them a great reviews. You may find their face book page is very limited or the pictures don't seem right. I've looked at about 50 of them and they all appeared to be bogus...
