An 1807 Half Dollar and Friends – Jack Young’s Fun With Fakes

By Jack D. Young, Early American Coppers (EAC), and the Dark Side Group ……
 

This latest installment of my CoinWeek exclusive series will initially focus on a couple of bad 1807 Capped Bust half dollars, starting with the following ‘Bay listing.

As always, I started this review with ATTRIBUTION; the 1807 was the first date of the series, and PCGS CoinFacts breaks these down into two obverse styles: Small Stars (Overton-113) and Large Stars (Overton-114).

Considering the star size and distance to the denticles, the subject example more closely matches a Large Star.

Comparing the subject example to a genuine 1807 O-114 shows that this one is not even close! The profile and the date are way wrong.

The reverse is way off, as well. I do note two interesting features of the subject example’s reverse: a weak “B”, and what I will refer to going forward as the “2-dots”.

Continued research led to a second example from a venue I’d never heard of – but I think I know what the “BS” stands for!

OK, so here’s where the “…and Friends” part comes in.

Here are four other dated examples with the same profile and what appears to be a common attribution mark.

And the reverses…

And as always, a twist! A little searching finds a “boat load” (pun intended) from our friends on AliExpress.

Much cheaper than on the ‘Bay, and only one (the common) reverse. One size fits all.

And back to the future with the 1807-dated version, my friend and fellow counterfeit sleuth Darren posted another eBay example on my Facebook group. The 1807 Capped Bust half dollar fakes just keep on coming.

Another eBay example of the 1807 counterfeit for sale:

I am continuing the research beyond this short article; Darren and I are trying to find the genuine source variety (if there is one) for these counterfeit coins.

Although certainly not a match, the variety below may have been the inspiration for these.

Stay safe out there!

Best,

—Jack

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