By Jack D. Young, Early American Coppers (EAC) ……
I have written several CoinWeek articles on groups of counterfeits I call “families”, where a genuine example is used for both the obverse and the reverse – with different dates added to create the series.
The family I discuss in this article was a new one to me and several of my friends in the “Dark Side” Facebook group, and imaged in three listings from a seller on the internet. The seller had a few of the family members we have already documented (several Capped Bust half dollars and one of the bad Draped Bust dollars), along with many genuine certified offerings. The bad raw coins were all reported and removed.
The three new one’s images as follows:
An astute Dark Side member attributed the inspiration as the 1806 O-109, pointed 6 no stem, with a die break at the date and possibly the 12th star; genuine example courtesy PCGS CoinFacts:
Comparison image of the bad 1806 to the genuine image:
Obverse comparison of suspect example and genuine one.
Reverse comparison of suspect example and genuine one.
And of course, a twist! There is evidence of re-engraving of the arrows, probably to repair damage to the genuine example.
Comparison of suspect Draped Bust half dollar counterfeit on the left and genuine one.
Another astute member marked up a slurry of apparent common marks between these.
From the common marks in “80”, it would appear that they removed the last digit and replaced it for subsequent dies.
Continued digging by members found another 1806 reported from the internet, including edge views.
After some late-night research, I found a 2015 ANACS article on an 1801 with the same noted reverse:
That article can be found here.
And of course, continued digging found the 1805…
And the latest internet listing; the seller calls it a “RARE 1806 HALF DOLLAR 50 CENT DRAPED BUST WITH UNUSUAL “OP” STAMP ON BACKSIDE”…
You can actually see part of the removed “Y” of COPY in one of the posted images!
As the research continues, we are working to identify the actual genuine source coin for this latest “family” of Draped Bust half dollar counterfeits.
Best as always,
–Jack
MORE Articles on Counterfeit Coins by Jack D. Young
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