Counterfeit 1955 Doubled Die Lincoln Cent
Ispotted an interesting (and scary) thread on CoinTalk (CT) recently. The original poster (OP), a new member, wrote: “So I came across a listing online for a 1955 doubled die penny, and it seemed too good to be true.” The last part of the sentence alone is a huge red flag. If something seems too good to be true, it almost certainly is not true.
The OP continued: “I did a quick Google search and it turns out you can buy them from China now? How in the world is someone supposed to tell what is real anymore? These fakes all look very real to me.” He then posted links to the coin’s obverse and reverse and asked, “Do you guys think it is real?”
As someone who got his start collecting Lincoln cents in the 1950s and has been looking at them fondly for the last 70-plus years, the pictured coin looked like some giant copies of coins I’ve accumulated over the years. For openers, the color looked wrong and there was something about Lincoln’s face that just wasn’t right. As one poster put it, “Well, it does say copy and Abe looks like a sleep-eyed dude from Omaha.” To this comment, the OP argued, “The ‘copy’ is just a photoshop [addition] to probably comply with legal requirements for listing online, but I’m sure other vendors are out there selling them openly. Did you see the photos of the listing I posted? Do you think it’s a real coin or a copy?” At this point, I would have been tempted to add that the coin is a real copy, but another poster wrote, “No. It’s fake. Nothing about it looks real.” The OP’s next comment was most informative. “For what it’s worth, the seller is asking $250 for it. So that was a sort of red flag for me.”
Red flag? You would have to have a time machine and go back many years to be able to touch a genuine 1955 doubled die Lincoln cent for $250. The “coin” appeared to be uncirculated, and if it were genuine, the PCGS value in MS-60 is almost $3,000. $250 is not a red flag, it’s a full-on tsunami of fakery! Next, the OP wrote: “I guess it was news to me, but I just didn’t know they had started faking our pennies now. The seller also has this 1916-D dime, which I am guessing is also fake.” To this, the reply was “Surely you jest. It’s an out and out FAKO ...” Another poster wrote, “Coins have been being faked for decades. [This probably should be for centuries or millennia.] This is not a new thing. There are a lot of Chinese counterfeits that have been made of American coins, from pennies to dollars. [And also gold coins.] That is not a very good fake IMO, and Abe’s face and hair are clear signs of it not being genuine. Also, the website says it’s a copy in the title, so you can’t blame the seller.”
Another poster uploaded photographic enlargements of a genuine
1955 doubled die cent from his personal collection. Referring to his own coin, he wrote, “Lincoln’s bust and the area where the letters overlap are easy to see the difference.” A well-known CT member posted the following information: “That counterfeit of the 1955 doubled die cent has been around for quite awhile. I added it to my virtual ‘black cabinet’ of counterfeit coins years ago. If you see a picture of it straight on instead of at an angle, it’s more obvious. Bad photography and pictures shot at an angle are the stock in trade of counterfeit coin sellers. When you see that for a [possible] purchase, turn the page. Don’t even consider buying it.” The next post was a picture of the obverse of what appeared at first glance to be a gem 1955 doubled die with full mint red color. The reverse shows something else, however. At the top are the words “GROVE MINTING COMPANY” and below this is a large shield with greenery around it. At the bottom is “MMXXI.” The poster explained, “Grove Minting has a very realistic obverse but paired with a custom reverse.” You can buy Grove Minting’s coin for $28 plus $6 shipping.
The next poster gave a brief history of the 1955 doubled die counterfeits. “I was lucky enough,” he wrote, “to get in on the ground floor of ThirdParty coin authentication in this country so I’ve seen a few counterfeits over the years.”
“The 1955/55 is an expensive coin. By the 1960s a much better counterfeit (published in 1963) than the one in the OP existed. For some perspective, [the OP’s] example would not have fooled any coin dealer back then, while the better made fake of the time was deceptive enough to fool most dealers. By the 1970s there were two or three very deceptive fakes of these coins in the market. The ANA’s certification service published one of them in the 1980s. If I remember [correctly], it is the one with a tiny curved ‘spur’ coming off the top of one of the 5s. In my opinion, anyone who has a genuine cent made between 1950 and 1957 in AU condition
would see that the coin in the OP looks much different – nothing like it should. The key to avoiding counterfeits is a simple one: Know what a genuine example looks like. That way, even for an experienced professional, you still may not know if a coin is authentic or not but you know it looks different than it should and that’s the ‘red flag’ we all look for.” The next poster seconded the comment about knowing what a genuine coin looks like. “This is your first line of defense,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, the notion of making a big score overcomes all rationality for a lot of people, which is why counterfeiting [valuable coins] thrives. Your second line of defense is that the coin you posted looks like garbage, which it is. Trust your instincts.”
I’m surprised that none of the respondents to this thread mentioned certification. There is no way that I would buy a coin like the 1955 doubled die Lincoln that wasn’t certified by one of the main services (ANACS, NGC, PCGS).
Of course, there are now counterfeits out of China of both the coins and the slabs, but that’s a topic for another column.