Table Of Content

Longacre’s Ledger The Journal of The Flying Eagle and Indian Cent Collectors’ Society Volume 20.3, Issue #80 December 2010 www.fly-inclub.org The “Fake” Issue Counterfeits War Stories Authenticating 1877 The Mystery of the That Will Scare You By Charmy Harker Indian Cents Copper and Silver 1863 By Richard Snow pg. 12 By Richard Snow Cent Errors pg. 7 pg. 17 By Richard Snow pg. 22 Longacre’s Ledger Vol. 20.1 December 2010 Page 2 The Flying Eagle and Indian Cent Collectors’ Society Our mission is to gather and disseminate information related to James B. Longacre (1794-1869), with emphasis on his work as Chief Engraver of the Mint (1844 -1869) with a primary focus on his Flying Eagle and Indian Cent coinage. Founded 1991 www.fly-inclub.org Club Officers President ....................................................Chris Pilliod [email protected] Vice President ......................................Tim Cartwright [email protected] Secretary ................................................Sheldon Freed [email protected] Treasurer .....................................................Vern Sebby [email protected] State Representatives Chairman ...............W.O. Walker [email protected] Editor ............................................................Rick Snow [email protected] Webmaster ..................................................Dave Noble [email protected] State Representatives The following individuals have indicated their willingness to help promote the club and it’s activities in their state. Arizona .......................Rick Snow [email protected] Massachusetts ........Gary Sjostedt [email protected] Delaware ...............Jesse Fury, Sr. [email protected] Missouri ...................Dave Noble [email protected] California ............Charmy Harker [email protected] Montana ...................M.P. Hamill [email protected] California ...............Mark Watson [email protected] Nebraska ...............Quent Hansen [email protected] Connecticut ............Ron Gammill [email protected] North Carolina ....Bob Pedloskey [email protected] Georgia ..............Norman Thomas [email protected] New York ................W.O. Walker [email protected] Idaho .................Marvin Erickson [email protected] Pennsylvania ...........Chris Pilliod [email protected] Indiana .....................David Brody [email protected] Texas ..............Francis Townsend [email protected] Iowa ...............Thomas Robertson [email protected] Virginia....................Darrell Tyler [email protected] Kansas .............Mark McWherter [email protected] Virginia......................Joel Cherry [email protected] Louisiana ...................Lynn Ourso [email protected] Washington..............Kenneth Hill [email protected] Maryland ...................Larry Steve [email protected] West Virginia ..............John Savio [email protected] Please help the editor in updating any errors or changes. If you would like to become a state representative (there can be more than one per state), please contact the editor. On the cover... This is a counterfeit 1876 Indian Cent. It is one that is so well made, it would fool most people, even knowledgeable collectors and dealers. Learn how to spot this and other counterfeits in this issue. Image by Rick Snow Special thanks to Heritage Auctions for printing this issue of Longacre’s Ledger Copyright 2010, The Flying Eagle and Indian Cent Collectors’ Society, “The Fly-In Club.” All rights reserved. Articles, opinions and comments appearing in this journal reflect the views of their authors and may or may not agree with those of the Editor or the Society. The Society specifically reserves the right to edit copy, require payment in advance, suspend advertising privileges, or decline any article, letter to the editor, advertisement or other submitted material in part or in whole at its sole discretion. No part of this Journal may be reproduced, in whole or in part, by any means, without permission from the Society. Longacre’s Ledger Vol. 20.3 December, 2010 Page 3 Longacre’s Ledger 2010 Vol. 20.3 Issue #80 Contents Featured Articles President’s Letter ........................................5 Counterfeits That Will Scare You The Mystery of the Copper and Silver By Richard Snow .................................7 1863 Errors Coin Dealer War Stories By Richard Snow ...............................22 By Charmy Harker .............................12 Looking Back Twenty Years Authenticating 1877 Indian Cents By Larry R. Steve ...............................26 By Richard Snow ...............................17 Something New 1858 LL S18; 1862 S36; 1866 S10; 1874 S7; 1883 S16; 1897 S24; 1901 S24. By. Richard Snow .....................................29 Submission guidelines Submission deadlines If you have a substantive article you would like to contrib- Please submit all articles, letters, columns, press releases ute, please follow these guidelines: and advertisements no later than the following dates to as- √ If you have internet access, you can send text to the sure inclusion: editor’s e-mail address below. Please send images in separate files. Issue Deadline Show issue √ You may also send files and images on a CD-W disk #81 2011 Vol. 21.1. ....March 1, 2011 .........CSNS 2011 or other storage device to the editor’s address below. #82 2011 Vol. 21.2 .....July 1, 2011 .............ANA 2011 Storage devices will be returned upon request. #83 2011 Vol. 21.3 .....November 1, 2011 ...FUN 2012 √ Images of material can be made by the editor for use in #84 2012 Vol. 22.1. ....March 1, 2011 .........CSNS 2012 the Journal. Please include the necessary return post- age with the submission. √ Please feel free to contact the editor if you have any questions. Editor Membership $20 per year, $35 for 2 years Rick Snow P.O. Box 65645 Fly-In Club Tucson, AZ 85728 P.O. Box 559 (866) 323-2646 Sandwich, Illinois 60548 www.indiancent.com [email protected] Longacre’s Ledger Vol. 20.1 December 2010 Page 4 The President’s Letter By Chris Pilliod In my last President’s letter I inserted a rather ity of the photos is excellent cryptic note about an unusual observation I had dur- and I found myself mes- ing a tour of the Mint buildings in Philadelphia and merized by the collection. I stated “more about something I noticed in my next had seen them all before on President’s letter.” Several of you caught that in pass- several previous visits but ing and emailed or asked what exactly was I talking they all still captivated me about? each time I viewed them. That letter detailed a walking tour I recently made Many, if not most, appeared when I visited Philadelphia. As you recall, the first to be staged... a few big bruising guys holding a vat of and second Mint buildings no longer stand, only the cleaning acid staring at the cameraman, a half-dozen third and the fourth ones are still extant. The third gravely mustached-men working harmoniously elbow- Mint building is now part of a Community College. to-elbow, something I haven’t observed often in my Not much of aura of the third Mint building is left. mill career. The central foyer is intact but houses an art exhibit the Although I had laid eyes on this one particular students have assembled. The only remnant from the photo five or six times before, while I studied it in- Mint in the foyer is an old balance beam scale used for tensely something this time in the annealing depart- weighing silver and gold planchets. ment caught the corner of my eye. Of all the photos, and there are about 15 or 20 are hanging at eye-level in the hall, on this one I found myself stand- ing on my tippy-toes jumping up and down trying to figure out what this photo was trying to tell me. After a few minutes a deep voice startled me from behind, “May I help you sir???” I quickly turned around and faced a Security Guard in full dress uniform. He informed me that they had spotted some unusual activity on the surveillance cameras and were curious what I was up to. “Ummm,” I stuttered, “ I’m just studying these old Mint photos.” “Is that right? We normally don’t see that.” “Well, I’m a little different. But it was in the hall leading into the foyer where I’m really into old coins,” I explained. I found myself captivated by a series of old photos “Well, OK,” he replied, “carry on.” from approximately 1900 exhibiting the third mint’s The more I studied the more I became convinced workers in action. Then it occurred to me that the it was something very simple and benign that I would Great Earthquake of San Francisco, the Sinking of the fully expect to find in a production facility very much Titanic, McKinley’s assassination-- none of these had like where I toil, but yet also of extremely significant transpired at the time the photos were taken. The qual- consequence. Longacre’s Ledger Vol. 20.3 December, 2010 Page 5 In the bottom right hand corner of the photo blend- ing in amongst some oil splatters and no more than six feet from one of the employees laid a blank planchet either preparing to be annealed or more likely a blank that simply fell out of an annealing tub coming out of a hot furnace. It appeared that the workers were entirely nonplussed by its existence to the point of it being commonplace, a “we’ll get it later” attitude. But I got to thinking, well if it is an as-annealed blank, most likely it is discolored perhaps even lightly charred by the high-temperature annealing operation, and just what is going to happen to that blank? Well, with the possible exception of gold, I thought most blanks would discolor to the point of being unrecog- nizable between each other. Gold is extremely noble and may pass through annealing unaffected, resisting any effects of oxidation. But what if nickel, copper and even silver all turn black going through the annealing process? The edge won’t be reeded yet so except for diameter and weight annealed blanks will look pretty much the same. Especially if it dark inside the room, in the evening or nighttime. And who does the cleanup in the room? The annealing officer? I doubt it. Probably some night watchman who cleans up on the side. And then what does when I’m sure they are copper blanks? In a career he he do with the blanks discovered on the floor? For the or she may have picked up thousands of blanks lay- most part, surely nine out of ten times, maybe even 99 ing on the floor, and what if just 1% finds their proper out of 100, the lost blanks find their correct home. home for subsequent striking? But what if a blank finds the wrong tub, what if Thus the intrigue and lure of wrong planchet strik- that gold blank looks coppery after annealing with a ings in the Indian Cent series continues to appeal to quarter eagle blank almost identical to the diameter of the collector. Indian cents are known to be struck on a cent? I mean, a lot of numismatists think the reason the following blanks: most of the quarter eagle Indian Gold pieces struck in Denver were upset using cent upsetting roller dies. -- 3c Nickel That’s the reason they display a ridge near the edge -- Half Dime and the Philadelphia pieces don’t, Philly didn’t upset -- Dime the blanks prior to striking. -- Quarter Eagle. This whole journey reinforced my belief that the wrong-planchet strikings we encounter in U.S. coinage I’ll keep this President’s letter short as we have a great is simply understandable misidentification by an hon- issue with lots of important Indian Cent counterfeit est hard-working employee at the Mint, perhaps some- detection information. And I hope to see you in Tam- one in too big of a hurry to clean up and call it a day pa, Florida for the FUN Show. We have a Fly-In Club or a night watchman on his round trying to perform meeting scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on Friday January housecleaning. A handful of gold blanks in 1900 that 7th, 2011. I’ll have a nice Powerpoint show on how looked coppery after annealing must surely find their die steels are made—you’ll enjoy it. proper home and not a scrap bucket. Why weigh them Longacre’s Ledger Vol. 20.1 December 2010 Page 6 Counterfeits That will Scare You By Richard Snow Counterfeit coin detection relies on a well- with the same reverse. This is very important since documented library of known dies, both genuine and the 1877 Indian Cent has a Shallow N reverse and if counterfeit, to initially detect the fake coins. After a you can make a real-looking 1876, you can also make fake is discovered, it can be traced by its own die di- a real-looking 1877. So the search was on for another agnostics against future examples that are questioned. example of the fake 1876 Shallow N. The hardest part is identifying the well-made counter- An example has finally been found by Dennis, feit when only one example is known. a Fly-In member who is collecting the PCGS variety Back in 2002 I wrote about a suspected coun- set graded by PCGS as AU58. The coin he found was terfeit 1876 Shallow N that was found by Dr. Tim sold on eBay. The interesting part of his find was that Larson on eBay.1 the new coin was in a genuine PCGS holder. The coin was known to be counterfeit because The fact that the coin is so well-made that it it was a Shallow N reverse and none are known for made it past the graders at PCGS is amazing! Dennis that year with that reverse design. Knowing it was let me borrow the coin to educate the PCGS graders counterfeit helped, but we needed to know what the as well as the Fly-In Club members who attended the die markers were so that others could be identified meeting at the ANA show at Boston. 1) Longacre’s Ledger Vol 12.2 #52, June 2002 Counterfeit 1876 Shallow N Cent in PCGS AU58 holder. Longacre’s Ledger Vol. 20.3 December, 2010 Page 7 Please don’t think that PCGS, or anyone for that matter, is above mistakes. However, once a mistake is identified, it is likely that the same mistake will not be made again. PCGS did offer to buy the coin for what Dennis paid. He politely declined, but he told them that he will never place the coin back on the market. The real important thing was that now we could identify the repeating damage and document this fake for future authenticators. The reverse is the important die to make detailed notes on. We found a large repeating depression just above the inner olive leaf. This should be found on all examples from this reverse die, so it is important to make special note of it and compare it to all Shallow N coins you encounter. I think there is no need to be scared, as long as you know what to look out for. Fake Shallow N reverse die marker Two different fake 1876 Shallow N from the same dies Longacre’s Ledger Vol. 20.1 December 2010 Page 8 Fake 1869 Bold N with two different reverse dies Here are two 1869 fakes that are easy to tell as identify questionable pieces, but you can’t use them to fakes only because they have the Bold N design which condemn a coin as fake based on them because these was not made until 1870. Aside from that they are are elements that were on the original host piece and very deceptive. The obverse dies are the same die but are not unique to the fakes. the reverse dies are different, which is most noticeable The counterfeiter must artificially circulate the on treatment of the shield. What happens when these coins after striking, otherwise they look too good to reverse dies are paired with a date that is known to be true. As a result most fakes look like they are very have a Bold N? choice AU’s with questionable color. The edges tend There are a few die markers on these fakes. to be a bit more square than real coins. There are also die cracks and these can be used to Longacre’s Ledger Vol. 20.3 December, 2010 Page 9 Fake 1869 #1 (on left on previous page) with repeating defects marked. On the obverse we find two repeating marks, On the reverse we find two marks on the NT in one on the chin and one on the neck. These are very CENT. These appear to be transferred marks and not good identifiers, but they could easily be masked by marks to the coin. artificially circulating these a bit more. Fake 1869 #2 (on right on previous page) with repeating defects marked. On the second example we see the same re- suspected fake. The likely repeating damage is a small peating marks on the obverse. mark on the left edge of the shield. On the reverse we see that the shield is bulg- Be sure to keep an eye out for both of these ing slightly more than normal, but this is transferred reverse dies on other dates. from the host coin and cannot be used to condemn a Longacre’s Ledger Vol. 20.1 December 2010 Page 10