1804 dollar
Reid Goldsborough
a guy writing in somewhat broken English from Sumatra who says he
bought an 1804 dollar at a local market from a man who had it in his
family for more than 100 years. He sent me pics, including the edge,
which was reeded. I told him it was a modern forgery and looked to be
cast from a authentic Bust dollar but with the 4 in the date tooled
into the mold, was likely made in China recently, and that the person
he bought it from was likely telling a story.
The problem is, he really, really wants to believe he has found the
16th known 1804 dollar, and he doesn't believe what people, including
others besides me, are telling him. I'm trying to be patient with him.
He's friendly, and in feeling him out he doesn't strike me at all as a
conman. He said he doesn't want to sell it, just to know what it
really is. I guess we all have dreams of finding treasure....
som...@some.domain
Bob
> In article <201ffd62-46a0-4182-b68f-c23b59a9c...@s1g2000prg.googlegroups.com>, Reid Goldsborough <reidgoldsboro...@yahoo.com> wrote:>I've been having a curious email exchange over the past two weeks with
An Indian manager at my former employer knew I collected coins and
contacted me about 15 years ago regarding one of his relatives in
India who had been offered an 1804 dollar for a "bargain" price,
$1,000 or something like that. They faxed him an image and of course
it was one of these crude fakes, obvious even from the bad Xerox
copy. I told him not to let his relative pay ANYTHING for this coin.
Many similar fakes were offered to U.S. servicemen during the Vietnam
War, as early as 1966 that I know of. This fake might actually have
been in someone's family for a couple of generations, though not for
"100 years."
Bob Leonard
DanU
wrote:
A few years ago, I got a call from a local woman who had a 1792 Cent
for sale. She told a story about a great grandfather five generations
back who worked at the Philadelphia mint and dropped names of
Rittenhouse, etc.
She got her brother to take digital photos of the "coin" and emailed
me. I was floored. It was a beautiful chocolate brown Birch cent. I
called the woman and made an appointment, but mentioned that it was
likely a fake. She has done some internet research and believed it
was worth $250,000 or more.
It turned out that it was a very well done electrotype. Of course,
she did not believe me, and she sent it off to Heritage. Their
"expert" mailed it back to her with a very nice letter explaining what
an electrotype is, and that it could be worth $500 to $1,000 if she
found the right collector.
Several phone calls later, I bought it for $200 and I still have it
because it is really neat.
Reid Goldsborough
> scary if he passes it along to someone who passes it along...
Not really scary because it's not a deceptive or dangerous copy, just
another cheap cast 1804 dollar fake with very obvious diagnostics.
This is not to say that people don't get fooled with these -- fool and
his money and all that.
I just got another email from him. It turns out that he decided to
clean it to somehow try to prove to me that it's authentic. I think
what I need to do, two weeks into politely corresponding with him, is
ignore him. Sumatra or no Sumatra. <g>
som...@some.domain
one cannot lead an idiot to the light. they think it's a tunnel and are afraid
of the dark.