How to tell Morgan dollars from cast fakes apart?

I have no idea how when I'm looking on ebay, any tips?

 

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No easy answer. Best I can say is to buy only slabbed ones from reliable dealers. And start to learn the coin. It will take a while.

I'm sure the folks that have been doing this a lot longer than I have will chime in. There are plenty of counterfeits out there, some good enough to fool even some experts.

 

If you Google for "counterfeit morgan silver dollars" you can find plenty of resources.

 

Poorly made cast fakes will have some obvious tell-tale signs. Most notably, mushy details and a porous look to them. That said, many of the newer counterfeits coming out of China appear to be struck...not cast and they look really good. Those have been far harder to detect.

To make it worse, they are also now counterfeiting slabs too.

 

I like money, I like saving money. However, in this day and age with the vastly superior counterfeits coming out of China, you have to be smart. Certain things like Morgans, Mexican silver, and some gold issues I do more due diligence buying. I would not touch any "key date" US coins with a ten foot pole without it being slabbed nowadays. So the short answer is to find a good, reliable dealer who will always take a coin back if proven to be fake, and buy from them. Yeah, it will cost you more than buying from any random person on Ebay, but in the end you will know your coins are all real. Many times in life the cheapest is not the best bargain.

 

Yeah those chinese fakes along with the fake slabs can be a real nuissance. it is never fun to be the bearer of bad news when a customer wants to sell you something and its fake.

Counterfeits dwindle the collecting experience because too many people want to swindle and rip people off.

 

couldn't have said it better myself. Be cautious but not too cautious to where nobody will want to sell to you. For instance if you go to a LCS each week and just walk around and bug the owner asking if every coin is fake and that you want him to prove it is not fake. He proves to you it is rea but yet you still don't buy, eventually he will kick you out of his store because you're wasting his time.

An extreme example indeed. But this can happen you're best off hitting the books and learning how to spot counterfeits and then proceed to buy the popular or rare coins you desire. If you can't wait ask a friend who knows what he/she is doing to go to the coin dealer with you.

 

I completely agree. I do the vast majority of my buying these days from dealers whom I trust. There are too many problems out there not to.

 

Cool good tip

 

That's not something you should ask on the open forum... Show some respect for the CoinTalk Dentist. Never get on a dentist' bad side... Your teeth will pay the price.

 

PLEASE DON'T DO THIS

I love my teeth....

 

It's hard to believe it has been going on that long...it's amazing how fast the time has gone.

Great...not I'm starting to feel old.

 

Wow. That's depressing.

 

It simply means that the counterfeiting is getting better...so we as numismatists need to get better too. That means learning more. It seems that today, people don't want to actually study coins...they have become so dependent on TPGs to tell them everything they "need to know." Combine that with improved counterfeiting of coins (and slabs) and there is a recipe for disaster for the uneducated collector base...which I believe is a growing group.

This is a battle that needs to be fought with knowledge it seems to me that more and more people simply don't want to take the time (and put forth the effort) needed.

 

When that image of the dies came out, I almost fell out of my chair. Was it Braddick that posted it? I didn't know China was that far along with coins. When folks started collecting the things, I knew it was going to get crazy.

 

even more depressing.

 

Nah, its part of the hobby. It always has been. Now, its YOUR job to minimize the amount of fakes in your collection. You do this by education, which btw is really fun. You get to read and study coins, what is better? I am 100% certain I have fakes in my collection. I just don't know WHICH ones at this point.