COLLECTABLE COUNTERFEIT COINS, PART ONE

I was struggling with what to write about for our January's MintMaster then the idea of counterfeit coins came to mind. As we are, and should always be, on the lookout for counterfeit coins, it is my opinion that just about all significant collections very likely contain an undetected counterfeit coin. Especially with modern technology and techniques of manufacturing counterfeits are improving every year many very high quality fakes already exist. In fact it has been discussed if so-called “Perfect” counterfeits already exist. Most experts presently deny the existence of perfect counterfeits but if one were to exist how would they or anyone know.

This article is not about detecting counterfeits but instead I will discuss the collecting of counterfeits. You may ask, who in their right mind would actually collect counterfeit coins, or even pay good money for them? I started digging through my library and found a number of books not aimed at counterfeit detection but their identification and collectability. There are several such books and they are quite interesting with specific pictures and details of collectable counterfeits.

Actually, quite a few collectors collect counterfeit coins. There are several categories of counterfeits. First those which were made to circulate and deceive merchants. Then there were those made to substitute for rare coins which collectors who could not afford the real item for their collections. By this I mean fabrications which were made not to deceive but to help collectors fill holes in their collection with something they could not afford to purchase the real thing. Finally the counterfeits that were made to deceive collectors by unscrupulous people for a quick profit.

First and probably foremost I will cover coins which were made to circulate and deceive merchants. Probably the most common of these were early capped bust half dollars. Fifty cents was a tidy sum of money in the early 1800's and up until the change in design many capped bust half dollars were counterfeited. Shown earlier are two books exclusively written identifying these halfs by Keith R. Davignon. His books are fully illustrated with pictures of each half known with detailed descriptions and information about the counterfeiters. His first book is 159 pages in length while his second contains 326 pages. These early counterfeit bust half dollars are highly collectable and can sell for a significant sum of money. One very interesting fact is when the capped bust design ended in 1839 counterfeiters continued to make fakes of the same design through 1842. There was no Numismatic News or other general publications to inform them of the design change which has made for some very interesting fakes.

Another interesting series of books is those entitled “Bad Metal” by Winston Zack. So far two editions have been released, the first covers copper and nickel fakes while the second covers silver 3c pieces through quarters. I understand that subsequent volumes are planned to cover the higher denominations and possibly gold coins. These books cover each coin in detail along with many stories about the counterfeiters themselves. They are illustrated in full color both with obverse and reverse images of each coin.

Still another recent book by Joseph P. Cronin covers a much more recent counterfeit. Namly the Jefferson nickels and various dates which were counterfeited between 1939 and 1953 by Henning. Many of these counterfeit nickels presently sell on the market for hundreds of dollars each and are eagerly collected.

Even the early “Red Books” got into the picture of identifying replicas of early colonial coins by a star next to the coin and identifying the name of the individuals who created the replicas or counterfeits. These replicas were somewhat common and most collectors were aware of them but nonetheless they were still collected. These are examples of coins which in many cases were quite rare and it was thought at the time of their manufacture that this would allow collectors to acquire an example of a coin which otherwise could not be obtained but still displayed in their collection.

Some of the makers' names are quite well known in our hobby such as Copley, Dickenson, Mickley, Edwards, Bolen and others.

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web