Expert: Ronald Fern - 4/19/2010

Question
I bought an American Silver dollar last year from a local coin shop that had "counterfeit" written on the top of the cardboard sleeve it was stored in. Not knowing why the coin was labelled as such I asked and was told there were no Liberty Silver dollars made for 1906. Is this an accurate answer ? I bought the coin anyway because if it is counterfeit, someone went to an awful lot of work to make what I think is a pretty good deception.

Answer
Hi Robert:

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to answer your question.

Whoever told you your coin was "counterfeit" was correct. There was no silver dollar minted in 1906. Your coin was likely made from a genuine silver dollar that had a different date. The counterfeiter added a different date when making the coin dies. It may be a replica coin from the Orient (China). This country has had a large increase in "copy" coins coming from there in the past couple of years. The Chinese government allows coins to be made in China without restraint. The "counterfeiter" could be put to death if they made fake Chinese coins. A key would be to compare your "1906" silver $1 to another genuine dollar around the same time frame. The last date minted was 1904. None were struck between 1905 and 1920. The Morgan $1 was last struck in 1921. Compare the weight, size and thickness of each coin.

Without a photo, or the coin specifics, it is difficult to pinpoint what you may have. If you want to ask a follow up question with a photo and/or added information, I'll revise my answer, as required.

As a "replica" coin, not made of silver, it would be worth only a few dollars to an interested collector.

For more information on Morgan Dollars, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Dollar

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Thank You and Good Luck in your collecting.