By Jack D. Young
A favorite counterfeit of mine, Gobrecht Dollars are among the most coveted coins by veteran collectors. For those unfamiliar with the series, these dollars were minted in the United States in 1836, 1838 and 1839. These coins were designed by Christian Gobrecht, the third Chief Engraver of the US Mint.
I published one article in the LSCC’s Gobrecht Journal and two articles for Coin Week. I also included it in my recent Live Coin Q & A podcast on my Top 5 most deceptive counterfeits ( YouTube 5 counterfeits ).
Ironically the day after the podcast aired, I received a message from a friend attending the Georgia Numismatic Association’s Coin Show, where he saw a raw example in a dealer’s inventory listed for $12.5K! This example appears to be a dead ringer for mine with many (red) circled common marks. The black circled mark is a good identifier for this example.
A friend’s personal images of the subject example from GA
I am not mentioning the dealer’s name here, but I did see he is listed as having a table at this month’s Chicago Central States Coin Show, so I planned to take the opportunity to hopefully see this one “in-hand” and take some closer images.
The back story of this one is interesting. My friend actually owned the genuine repaired source coin and contacted me after seeing my initial article on these. He is drawn to Gobrechts and like me is on a budget, so the best examples are typically out of reach, but this one fit the bill for him initially. He is always on the lookout for another and spotted one at a coin show back in 2021. Comparing it to his and images from my article he explained to the dealer, I was convinced this was one of the bad ones. He was invited to the dealer’s shop after the show where they could perform a better review in that setting.
He shared the following cool images, having the source example next to a clone at the same time!
Documented genuine repaired source coin on the left, subject raw example on the right
As in images from my articles, you can clearly see the discolored/ repaired area above the head of his NGC certed example. Interestingly you can also see the dark identifier mark on the subject example as I showed to start this article!
And the NGC certification states: “FINE DETAILS PLUGGED”.
Reverse image comparison; there is another unique marker on the subject example, a large reverse scratch:
And a combination image of the subject example:
Subject example images from the same friend
Notice I am calling both the 1st set of images from one dealer and the 2nd from another THE subject example! They both share the common details of the struck clone counterfeits, but both have the 2 unique identifiers as noted…
And back to the “back story: the dealer in the 2021 discussion stated he intended to get his money back from the dealer he purchased it from, roughly $10K.
So, with both dealers listed at tables at this year’s Central States Coin Show, I always plan to attend for the past 3 or so years, I decided to wait for that opportunity.
My plan was to see both dealer’s there, but especially the one likely to currently own it. Going to his table the 1st day was disappointing as he just had coin boxes in his display cases and nothing to actually view.
So, I went to the dealer who reportedly had it in 2021. When he was free to talk I showed him my example, which currently is in a TPG holder as genuine.
Author’s example from China
My example is a virtual marked twin for the subject one, but after studying it a bit this dealer stated he had never seen an example with so many marks.
Passing past the other dealer’s table resulted in nothing, as he still had nothing displayed; so the show ended for the 1st day without spotting the counterfeit. I decided I would go to his table the next morning and if he still had nothing displayed, I would ask about the coin.
Back to the dealer in the morning and nothing new with his case, so I introduced myself and said I understood he may have an 1836 Gobrecht. He said he did and dug it out of a box. Listed for $12.5 K it is the same coin seen by my friend in Georgia a couple of weeks ago. In hand, I asked if I could take some images of it for better viewing and he said OK. Taking them, I thanked him and went to an open area to review the images, my example and images from my Coin Week article. No mistaking it, one of the clones. Now how to have to tell him.
I created the collage of the major counterfeit attribution marks and his coin for this article:
Attribution points image from my article
Subject counterfeit example at dealer’s table (my bad images!)
I loaded my article on my phone and went back to his table waiting for it to be clear of any customers. I then told him I didn’t want to be a pain, but wondered if anyone had ever suggested the Gobrecht is counterfeit. He said no, “especially with where it came from.” I then showed him his images I took, my coin and the clear repeating attribution marks of the fakes.
He then stated who he bought it from and that he knew who that dealer had purchased it from as well.
We shook hands and he put the coin away as I left.
So, these deceptive counterfeits keep surfacing, sometimes where you may least expect them. They are the gift that just keeps on giving…
I did send an email to the 1st dealer from 2021 on this one, but so far no response–stayed tuned!
Best as always, Jack for Proxiblog!
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