Tag Archives: Fake Large Cents

1806 Counterfeits, the Gift that Keeps Giving!

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By Jack D. Young

My friend and half cent guru Ed Fuhrman alerted me to this one on eBay. His PM stated “I think someone just posted one of the super fake 1806 C-1 half cents on eBay. Take a look.”

I did and they did.

I have actually written two articles about these fakes for these EAC’s Penny-Wise as well as a couple for Coin Week and now this one for Proxiblog.

The subject coin is interesting as one of the very deceptive group of counterfeits I have been chasing down the rabbit hole since late 2015. This was one we saw in the 1st group of certified genuine fakes from a known CN connected buyer and group of sellers operating out of College Station Texas; I have discussed this group in many previous articles…

The listing of the subject:

eBay listing- counterfeit 1806 C-1 half cent

Yep, I made an offer knowing what this is; I chose not to discuss it upfront with the seller as I didn’t want to influence him while considering my lower offer.

I quickly marked up the posted image of the reverse with four known counterfeit tells, or attribution points for these. Done from memory, this one is burned into my mind as I owned five examples at the time with four being in TPG holders as genuine. And 14 total examples documented to date.

Subject reverse marked with 4 major attribution points of the counterfeits

So, no doubt what this one is, it is the 1st I had seen in the wild in a couple of years! I anxiously waited to see how the seller would respond to my offer.

Not for the listed price, but a fair price for what it is! And then waited to actually have it in-hand so that I could message the seller and start a conversation:

Messages through eBay with the seller after the sale

Interesting he stated this example “is from a Boston area old, abandoned coin shop”; he later stated he purchased it from the cleaning lady who cleaned the basement and painted for the owners two or three years ago.

And a nice image of this one including the edge:

Combination image of this featured example

And in-hand the main reverse attribution points for these from my microscope:

So, a good time to add some details on these from one of my previous articles:

Interestingly, there are 2 “varieties of this reverse”; apparently the counterfeiters tried a repair!

And an image of the 1st die state of the common reverse:

Reverse image from my article draft

And what about the obverse?

Obverse image from my article draft

Just an amazing number of common marks including a couple of light scratches noted! These are seen across both reverse die states.

So this example became the 6th one in my mini-hoard- talk about deep into the rabbit hole! And just a side note, I had several examples sent out for XRF testing of the metal and found them to have high levels of zinc in them, the only ones to test with that result against all of the other early copper coins we tested. Maybe the counterfeiters melted some later date Lincolns in their mix for planchets?

I did leave positive feedback for the seller but did note the coin is counterfeit.

So, I thought this the end of the story, but NO, as my articles often take a twist at the end!

And again, it was Ed who sent me a late Friday night link and said I really would like this one:

eBay listing over the weekend

I pulled up the listing and was literally shocked at the posted images!

And the special NGC label; apparently “traderbea” is a premier shop on whatnot.

eBay listing images

Look familiar?

Great images posted show all the “details”! No question what this one is and it is certified genuine by the TPG.

A quick note to my contact at the TPG resulted in an amended on-line cert:

Certainly makes it harder to sell if anyone considering a purchase takes the time to look…

Contacting the seller and discussing the issues lead to an agreement on a purchase; he had a buy-back guaranty through the whatnot dealer and of course the TPG has an authenticity guaranty as well so it is on its way to join the “Dark Side Collection.” Digging deeper into the abyss, two in a week 😎!

And this one is recent and slipped past both an established coin dealer and a top tier TPG, and that just goes to show how deceptive they are. So maybe my 5th published article will help. …

Ended eBay listing

And I will have to update my image of the TPG certified examples in the collection!

Author’s image of 4 certified examples

If you like posts like this, you can read more articles on counterfeit coins by Jack Riley, Jack D. Young and Michael Bugeja at this URL. Also, please subscribe so you can get our weekly newsletter and be informed whenever there is a new article or column.

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“NGC certified” Large Cents–NOT!

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By Jack D. Young

I have written a number of articles on fake Morgan Dollars in fake PCGS holders but now the latest from China (CN) are counterfeit large cents in fake NGC holders!

I was alerted to three bad listings in a coin forum I frequent, with one already showing sold. All listed on the Bay, all had the standard eBay answer they were A-OK, but they are not OK.

In all listings the seller cut-off the cert number on the label of the fakes, but the genius 😎 left enough of the barcode to scan. And unlike the PCGS Morgan fake slabs, the barcodes do scan properly!

So, starting with the “1840,” I show the Bay listing, the cert for the genuine one, and a comparison of the CN counterfeit to the genuine example.

One note I would like to make, when NGC receives information that a cert of theirs has been compromised with a counterfeit, they “nuke” the cert with a note “possible counterfeit holder” which can help someone considering a purchase if they just take the time to look it up. The certs for these three have all been reported and nuked and these are the images I will use in this discussion.

Recent eBay listing of a counterfeit 1840 large cent

The following shows the updated NGC cert and the comparison of the slabbed image of the listed counterfeit and the genuine example.

Next, the “1844”; same seller shipping from China:

Recent eBay listing of a counterfeit 1844 large cent
1844 comparison image of counterfeit, left; genuine example, right

And “last,” the “1846.” This is the initial example shown sold from the coin forum discussion.

Recent eBay listing of a counterfeit 1846 large cent

And the updated cert and comparison to the genuine example; WOW, MS61???

All three showed sold, and all appear to have been removed from the Bay after the fact. The 1840 actually showed as:

Kudos to NGC for so quickly addressing the issue! As far as the coins themselves, the1844 and 1846 are from the “smashed dentils” obverse family, the 1840 “crescent chip obverse” family from my previous Coin Week article, “It’s a Jungle out There! Later Date Large Cent Counterfeits.”

But as usual for these articles there is a twist! Reviewing the seller for any new items revealed another one, this a bad 1855 in bad NGC slab…

Counterfeit ”1855” on the left, genuine example on the right

And another comparison shows these are not even close!

And one common good “tell” for these holders is the size of the prongs!

Going back to check on the seller resulted in this, “No longer registered user”:

“NRU’ed”, I went back to the sold items and although you can see them, they have ALL been removed when you actually click on the links. eBay apparently put the hurt on this seller after the fact. This “1857” would have been interesting to see as it stated PCGS!

Apparent sold and removed later large cent counterfeit from the same seller

What another strange “twist”! I have been a very loud critic of eBay over the last several months about their apparent lack of caring about the number of counterfeits currently allowed for sale there. AND the inability of having obvious bad counterfeits removed through their “new and improved” reporting process. This lead to my latest Live Coin Q&A podcast premiered May 27 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57HwefhVn_k

It seems rather ironic after previously receiving responses like the following one on these fakes that the day after the podcast all of these including the active listings and the seller were removed!

eBay response to my report of the bad 1844 not NGC large cent

So ends another episode of my Facebook group, Fun with Fakes (FwF’s) and Proxiblog; it continues to be really hard to keep up with all the ways the counterfeiters are challenging the Hobby but we will continue to release content like this in an effort to help!