A FAMILY OF STRUCK FAKE LARGE CENTS

After writing the previous “family” article about rather deceptive struck counterfeit half cents based on the genuine 1804 “C-6” variety (at coinweek.com ) I felt it timely to document another member of the family, the counterfeit large cents based on the 1833 “N-5's”.

Just a note, I consider this type of counterfeit an intermediate level of deceptive “types”, better than the lower level fakes from the ones I refer to as “Chinese Cartoon” types up to the multiple lower level “Ali” offerings.

These struck fakes are documented in several different denominations and varieties and are fairly accurate as compared to the source coins, but the counterfeiters use the same layout and change the date to create a series of fakes, resulting in impossible die combinations/ states. These take a higher level of knowledge to discern, with being savvy with the series and variety attributions part of the best defense.

I co-authored an article for EAC a couple of years ago about a suspicious 1816 large cent for sale on the internet. The following is the image that centered that discussion.

My collaborator than ran through all of the known varieties for 1816 large cents to prove it didn't match any of them!

This prompted additional discussion among EAC members with another adding the following- “once again, 1833 Newcomb 5, except for the date. de'ja vu all over again. this one even shows the rim ding above the D from the mother coin”.

“The mother coin was an 1833N5 with a rim ding over the D of UNITED. These are easy to spot once you know what was copied to make the dies. Most of these middle date counterfeits match the attribution points of the 33/5 including the die cracks of a MDS example. The most dangerous of the group is the 1833, it passes the die attribution test for N5 including the "horned 8" but the rim and edge is still wrong”.

Counterfeit “1823” large cent

“1816” “1823” Genuine 1833 N-5 (courtesy PCGS)

To read the complete article, see:
A “Family” of struck fake large Cents (https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-%E2%80%9Cfamily%E2%80%9D-of-struck-fake-large-cents.347824/)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web