Tag Archives: 1914-D counterfeit

Family of “Fugazi” Lincoln Cents

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By Jack Riley

Fugazi is an Italian slang term meaning “fake” or “bogus,”  referring to a counterfeit object, a sham, or a fraudulent person. People who counterfeit coins are shams and frauds.

We “out” them on Proxiblog.

Prompting this article is a 1914-D cent that a friend shared in a large Facebook coin group. After I explained that this was not genuine, I received additional closeup images for analysis.

A closeup image of the date and mintmark shows this coin is not a genuine 1914-D. The shape and placement of the mintmark is incorrect. This, however, is not the case of an altered date or an added mintmark; the entire coin is counterfeit.

This 1931-S had surfaced on eBay within the last few months. Comparing both reverses it is clear these were produced from the same makers and related to a large “family” of counterfeits. I’m calling this family “Notched O.” More on that momentarily.

The image quality of the 1931-S is subpar, leaving blurry images, yet enough to discern the repeating marks.

“Common marks” highlighted in Red:

  • Depression in O
  • Dent in “N” as well as the “O” in the word OF
  • Small indent of the “E”

At this writing I’ve only seen this on both 1914-D and 1931-S. Likely this exists on many key and semi key dates as well.

To check if your coin may belong to this “fugazi” (i.e. “fake”), look for those common marks highlighted above in red.

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