How can I tell if my 1872 seated liberty is real

Hello
I am new here and to the coin world
I found this 1872 seated liberty coin yesterday and have been researching it all morning. I believe it to be real but want to make sure as i dont want to get into any trouble selling a fake coin. Can anyone help me?







I scanned this coin in hopes it will show all detail

Thanks a lot

 

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I just don't like the way it looks, photos too small. I would try a magnet on it, see if it sticks.

 

It does not stick to a magnet and it has the tink sound a silver coin normally has

 

What do you mean when you say that you "found" it yesterday? In grampas old things, in circulation, at a flea market?

 

Well not like I found it laying around but I went to an estate sale and it was in some items I had won

 

I am thinking it looks like it could be a counterfeit. I am not an expert on this coin, so this is just an opinion. You would either have to get it to an expert on authentic LS dollars, to look at it, or send it to a grading company if you think it's real, and want to know for sure. Pictures help, but people are not always able to say definitively based on pictures. Sometimes counterfeits are very good ones and it takes experts to be able to say, based on their knowledge of real ones, whether this is real or fake.

But there are lots of fakes out there for this coin, and 1872 is a known year that is faked.

There's really hard and fast way to say what makes one coin fake, without knowing the real ones first. Sometimes it's very easy if you see the hallmarks of a cast counterfeit. Sometimes it's more difficult to tell a fake from real.

You might want to see if there is a coin show in your area, and go talk to some of the dealers there, showing it.

 

It looks good to me, best test would be to weigh it. Spot on weight should be 26.73 grams. It might not come in exact, but it should be close. I am not sure about the official tolerance, but plus or minus .1 grams seems about right.
If the weight is good, chances are the coin is guenuine.

Mike

 

Is there any obvious marks on it that make you think its a counterfeit? I am just curious as it looks so darn close to the real ones I have seen online. It is definitely silver but not being an expert is hard to tell if it is real. I could take it to a coin person and see what they have to say just dont want someone to say it is real and i sell it and get in trouble, or they say its fake and its not and i toss it.

 

I have a kitchen scale that weighs ounces and it weighs 0.7 oz my scale doesnt have the extra numbers at the end and from research it suppose to weigh 0.773 in ounces....So i may have a real coin so now if thats the case i need it graded as i think its in great condition

 

Something just doesn't look quite right. The overall design details are extremely obscured, leading to believe it could be a Chinese cast counterfeit.

-Brian

 

Those Chinese counterfeits all look the same, they exhibit that dull, lifeless, pale white, eastern europe personality. Take it to a professional, they'll do all the little testing to make sure it's the real deal.

 

You need a better scale. If you kitchen scale is anything close to being accurate, the coin is way too light. In oz. 's it should come in at .94 oz. not .773 but I would not trust the accuracy of a kitchen scale. Like Doug said, bring it to a jeweler, or you may want to invest in your own scale. You can get a cheap accurate one in the $20 price range.


Mike

 

I once used a kitchen scale, because it wasn't calibrated correctly, my almond fudge bars didn't turn out the way I wanted them to. There might be too much chocolate in the center of your 72.

 

One more thing, after a second look, I believe I am moving over to the fake camp. Look at stars 4, 5 ,6 ,7,. They appear to be malformed. I looked at some photos of some genuine examples, and none had stars like that. I am thinking it was cast.

Mike

 

Good eye, those are generally crisply struck. Even in a lowball grade, it's evident.

 

Looking at it in person they dont look like that, but yea I will take it to a coin dealer. Also it has the same sound my real silver dollar has when you hit it together with other non silver coins. Did they make fake dollars with silver?

 

There are some fake coins made from real silver , but the majority are not.

 

It is a fake. It has the look, and even with his kitchen scale the weight is too low. He said it weighed .7 oz. And that is almost certainly standard oz so .7 oz = 19.7 grams. As mikem2000 says it should be closer to .9 oz.

 

#1
If you cannot detect fake & altered coins for yourself, then you should be very careful regarding what you sell & how you sell it.

#2
If an expert informs you about a coin being fake, then you cannot represent it as being a real coin. (Selling a coin that you know to be fake is illegal).

#3
The coin you have posted looks suspect to me. I’m not saying it is fake, I am saying that it looks suspect.

#4
IMO, you should inspect the weight. You should accurately measure the diameter. You should inspect the reeding & compare it to the reeding on a known good dollar. You should look for ANY positive bumps in all of the field areas. (A pimple or any raised bump in the field areas is not indicative of a true mint product). You should look for mushy details in areas that are lower in relief (not the high points that could be worn). You should check if it is attracted to a magnet. You should look for tooling marks around the denticles and devices. You should look for sharp denticle definition. You should look for casting bubbles. You should perform a ring test by placing the coin on your finger-tip & tapping it with a pencil to confirm that it rings (not tinks).

#5
I'll tell you what imediately doesn't look right to me. Look at the rim of the coin at 12:00. Why does it appear rough & different that the rim at say 6:00? Also, aren't there bumps in the field areas on the obverse? I see mushy details where I would expect to see sharper struck details in lower relief. The base of some stars exhibit the mushy details. The coin just looks wrong to me [nice but wrong]. Maybe it looks different in hand. You should get trained in counterfeit detection or show it to an expert.

There are many types of counterfeit coins (cast, struck, electrotype, spark erosion, etc). If you are going to buy & sell coins you should try to learn the characteristics of all fakes. The counterfeiters are getting better & better every day. They can fool the best.