Upon viewing this photo from a 2011 Proxibid auction, we felt uneasy. The Morgan dollar looked deep mirror prooflike in the photo; but the grade was AU53. PCGS never grades an almost uncirculated silver dollar in that condition “deep mirror.”

Here were the steps to determine the 1894 key date coin was a fake:

1. Go to PCGS certification verification.
2. Input the certification number on the label. When you do, you come up with this page:

3. Click on the link to the Heritage auction.

4. Compare the coins on the Heritage page with the one in the Proxibid auction (see photo below):

Voila! The authentic PCGS coin has a CAC sticker and is an almost uncirculated Morgan without any deep mirror reflectivity. The Proxibid lot was a fake.

To see how far Proxibid has come with respect to counterfeit lots, and to see the impact Proxiblog has had as an advocate for fair bidding, read about the 2011 scenario in this Coin Update post.

No one had surmised the correct answer for more than 24 hours. One made a good guess that this was an impaired proof in a mislabeled slab.

We posted an update that no one had won the eagle, and correct answers came in. The one that arrived first, j****d, wrote: “”My guess for the contest is that the coin photographed is either a counterfeit PCGS slab, or a crack-out with replaced coin. The coin does not match the one with the same serial number that was sold by Heritage: http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?hdnJumpToLot=1&saleNo=29121&lotNo=20348&x=0&y=0#Photo

We hope you enjoyed the contest and will visit Star Coin and Currency’s auctions on Proxibid!

Proxiblog thanks Jim Haver and Star Coin and Currency for sponsoring this week’s Proxiblog and for donating to our scholarship fund. We welcome donations from our audience. Proxiblog invites high quality houses for sponsorship because we want to promote the best on Proxibid to our viewers.