By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek Notes …..
A counterfeiter known by the Greek letter omega (Ω) that he, she, or they used to mark their work. Perhaps most famous for counterfeits of the 1907 Saint-Gaudens High Relief Double Eagle $20 gold coin and 1882 Indian Head Three-Dollar Gold, the Omega Counterfeiter also made fake Indian Head $10 Eagles dated 1910, 1913, and 1926, and additional Three-Dollar Gold pieces dated 1874 and 1878.
On the $3 coins, the Ω appears in the “R” of the word LIBERTY. On the 1907 High Relief Double Eagle, the “maker’s mark” is held in the claw of the reverse eagle.
F. Michael “Skip” Fazzari discovered the fakes after 50 1907 Saint-Gaudens High Relief, Roman Numeral Double Eagles of unknown origin began trading at the 1971 American Numismatic Association (ANA) Convention in Washington, D.C.. Fazarri examined the coins as an authenticator at ANACS starting in 1973 and determined that the coins were counterfeits. ANACS Director Charles Hoskins coined the term OMEGA based on his interpretation of the counterfeiter’s signature mark. ANACS tried to communicate with the counterfeiter in an open letter published in the May 1976 issue of The Numismatist, but apparently they received no reply.
The identity of the Omega Counterfeiter–whether a solitary individual, a state actor, or any number of possibilities in-between–remains unknown to this day.
NGC has written about Omega-made 1882 Three-Dollar Gold pieces and 1907 Saint counterfeits that the grading service has encountered.
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