By Jack Riley
The 1893-S Morgan, a key date in the series, is the third most counterfeited coin after the 1909-S VDB Cent and the 1916-D Mercury dime. That is why numismatists scrutinize raw coins offered online where most fakes are offered for sale as genuine.
The 1893-S Morgan Dollar below was sent to PCGS and returned as counterfeit. This is cast and not die struck. Surely it was a new collector with a PCGS membership who sent it in, hoping to authenticate it.
Let’s investigate.
The suspect coin weighed 26.75 grams with a diameter of 37.7mm and a thickness of 2.8mm. The standard for Morgan dollars is 26.73 grams with a diameter of 38.1 millimeters and a thickness of 2.4mm.
One would expect a cast to be thick if the weight is near that of a genuine coin. Some raised lumps show on the surface left of “i” and 3 raised lines in “A”.
I had previously logged this particular cast in my running doc sheet of “common cast Morgans.” I use this sheet as a reference point for new collectors of identifying various cast counterfeits via pictures. I’ve only seen this particular reverse on this 1893-S and one 1900-S.
These are still fooling collectors as evident regarding the fake coin sent to PCGS.
Always attribute your coins!
The 1893-S was produced using 1 obverse die and 2 reverse dies. The date position doesn’t change on any! All coins have a “far date” with the left of the 1 parallel to the right side of the 3rd denticle.
A few die markers on the obverse include a line through T and the “rabbits foot” on the R which may be difficult to see on lower grades so the T marker is the primary pickup point.
On to the reverse! Two reverses used with VAM-1 having a centered S and VAM-2 having a mint mark tilted right.
VAM stands for Van Allen and Mallis, referring to Leroy Van Allen and A. George Mallis, researchers who cataloged Morgan dollar and Peace dollar die varieties. The VAM system is a way to identify specific die variations on these coins.
To identify counterfeit coins, you should understand the role that die markers and dimensions play.
Die markers are imperfections on the die transferred to the coin during striking. As documented earlier in this article, such markers can be die chips, die breaks and die polish marks.
Coin dimensions include weight, diameter and thickness, as we used in documenting this 1893-S fake.
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