By Jack D. Young, Early American Coppers (EAC), and the Dark Side Group ……
Charles Morgan and CoinWeek have been burning the midnight oil, turning out informative article after article on popular coins in their Collectors Guide series, and one particular article happened to catch my eye just as I was investigating a recent suspect 1893-CC Morgan dollar!
Charles and CoinWeek present specific and relevant information on each subject coin or series featured, and I went through the 1893-CC version as part of my counterfeit research for my subject examples.
So, on to the subject example of this episode, and as all who know me know I start with ATTRIBUTION (even though this one has an “across the room” feature identifying what it is!).
With Carson City Morgan dollars, I typically start with the reverse and the size/placement of the “CC” mint mark; my go-to place for that has been the on-line resource VAMWorld and I have made crib sheets for myself of the known reverses by mint mark and VAM variety. When I speak of a Morgan VAM, I am using the term to basically mean known variety, but the Wikipedia definition is as follows:
And the subject eBay listing:
And the “across the room” feature I mentioned—well, there is a well-known counterfeit “CC” reverse used on a whole series of different dated Morgan fakes with both attribution points—the exact same wrong-for-most-CCs shape/location and the “slash” across the eagle.
I also note the “un-filled O” feature, which I have seen on many of the latest CC Fakes. And then the slab…
The label font also catches your attention from across the room! The front barcode does not scan, but the reverse QR code does. And ironically, it reads the correct cert number but adds “cn” to it – an ironic reference to China?
And what about the cert? Conveniently it has no reference image or auction appearances to compare to but it is active.
Being notified of the issues, the seller pulled the listing pending “further review.” And running through my file folders, I came across this Canadian seller example from January.
Same cert number, but this one’s front barcode scanned. The font was also better, but the reverse QR yielded the same “cn” notation.
And again, the reverse was easy to spot!
That seller wasn’t so cooperative, and the listing was removed.
But, as always, there’s more!
Back through the archives, I came across this beaut. Again listed on the ‘Bay with the same PCGS cert number but a different generation holder. This one dates back to 2022.
And the reverse “features”:
And the “twist” (as always)! One can always find them cheaper on one of my favorite internet venues…
So, there appears to be no end to the bad coins out there or subject matter for this series. Stay vigilant; it is a jungle out there!
I appreciate any feedback or “likes” for these on the CoinWeek FB page, where they are also posted.
Best,
—Jack
MORE Articles on Counterfeit Coins by Jack D. Young
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