ITS REAL!!! ITS REAL!!! 170 YEAR OLD North Carolina Gold Coin!! *NEW PICTURES*

vthepresident

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IT'S REAL!!! IT'S REAL!!! 170 YEAR OLD North Carolina Gold Coin!! *NEW PICTURES*

You guys are probably all going to make fun of me. How many times does some clown post a picture of a coin he or she bought at a yard sale or a pawn shop that turns out to be a replica or a car wash token? At least fifty times a day.
goldcoinreverse.jpg

goldcoinfront.jpg


Well, I am hoping that I am not that clown. However, I am fully prepared to don my polka dotted suit and put on my makeup. I can promise you I will be the sad kind of clown. Definitely not the happy kind. Here is my story,

After enjoying a most excellent day off from work with the first lady, we had one more stop to look at quilting supplies for her before we went home to eat some of her delicious spaghetti casserole. Keep in mind, she was so kind as to let me purchase a coin earlier in the day to add to my "19th Century Coins" type set (1877 seated half dollar). So, I was definitely not going to be in the coin market again for a while. Anyway, I said, "Can we swing by the pawn shop?" There is a nice pawn shop right down the road from our place, and the guy doesn't pay much attention to the dates on the coins he gets. He normally buys and sells based on silver and gold weight alone. She most graciously said "yes" and in we went. The place was crawling with pawners, so we had to wait for a while to get to the counter that has coins in it. I noticed two things...

#1. There were a lot of coins there that weren't there about a week ago. Normally the guys has a little display with 10 or 15 coins in it. Today there were 4 double eagles, a large stack of silver dollars, and many various older silver coins. It looked like a good portion of a collection had been turned in.

#2. There was another coin person there ahead of me shopping the case. The guy was discussing one coin in particular that I gathered might be a gold one. The shopper was struggling with the same decision I would soon be struggling with. At last, I heard him say, " I will go home and research this, and then I'll probably come back for it."
My interest was now perked.

After a thug bought a gun and a Mexican guy hocked a guitar, it was our turn. I know the owner pretty well, and he greeted me as he got the coin display out for me. The first lady and I perused the contents and I immediately found the gold coin. At first I thought it was a foreign coin, but when I flipped it, I saw "Carolina Gold" on the back. I thought right away it was probably a replica. However, not to be daunted, I asked the owner if he had tested the gold content and what the price was. He said he had not tested it but we could right there on the spot. He wanted $55, which was the price of the weight in gold. I didn't want him to scratch it to test it, so I trusted his eye for real gold and moved on. I wasn't about to ask for $55 more dollars from the first lady for more coins, so I paid the guy $1.60 for a busted up holed capped bust dime and a busted up holed seated dime and we left.

But it nagged at me. In fact, it chewed at me and pictures in my head appeared of redbook pages chronicling territorial issue gold coins and some other dude purchasing it before me. In the end, the First Lady convinced ME that we should go get it just in case it was real. So we did. I now own it. It looks just like the pictures in the Red Book. It is a Rutherford Bechtler gold dollar. Or a replica. Please, Treasurenet experts! Please tell me it's real!

If it's not, so be it, but I'm hoping the gold content will make it worth something even if it is more modern.

Any input will be appreciated,
V
 

Upvote 0

Dirty Knees McGee

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

I can't help you with authenticating it, but heck, why not spend a few more bucks and send it to a reputable certification service? If it is real, it would be money well spent and earned!!!
 

Captn SE

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

Well, I have to tell you that I've been looking at authentic Christopher Bechtler 1831-1834 30 gr. Gold Dollar coins on the Heritage Auction Galleries Site, and your coin looks to be authentic as far as the lettering/spacing/die is concerned. What is impossible to tell from your pic is whether it is real gold or not. One sold for as little as $220 (damaged), yet another for $37,000 in MS63 grade.

You will need to get it authenticated, and if so, graded. No way say 100% that it is real from the pic! But it looks promising.

Good Luck!

CAPTN SE
Dan


Here are some authentic ones.
The first one sold for $11,000.
The second one sold for $2700.
Third one sold for $8600.
The fourth one sold for $2000. I blew this one up for greater detail.
 

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Yarrum

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

Please keep us up to date with this, I'd love it to be real for your sake.
Great story too by the way.
 

Kiros32

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

Capt, you're right partner, I compared it to the one on Coinfacts, and every detail seems to match, down to the position of each letter and what appears to be an offset strike with the reeded edge in the same spot.

I am not saying its real, but if its not, its a damn impressive copy. Send that thing in and get it certified, and keep us up to date.
 

aa battery

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

For your sake i hope it is :thumbsup:
 

Historyhound

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

Looks absolutely real to me!! If you look closely enough to it, I'm sure you'll see that it came from the same pair of dies that is shown in the 2nd example posted by Captn_SE. The near perfectly semetric star and the very sharp dots after the "F" on the same side. My vote says it's real. Make sure that when you show it to a dealer, if he says it's not real, show it to at least two more to be sure. Or go right to the top professionals at these 2 links:

http://www.southerngoldsociety.org/index.html

http://www.rcw1.com/m/index.php?osCsid=aafbd4661bd7b71fadaa199d29dcfd31

Good Luck!!
 

EDDE

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

vthepresident said:
You guys are probably all going to make fun of me. How many times does some clown post a picture of a coin he or she bought at a yard sale or a pawn shop that turns out to be a replica or a car wash token? At least fifty times a day.
Never
 

49r Relics

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

Without weighing it against a real one and using dial calipers to measure it, it is difficult to say for sure, but . . . it sure looks exactly like a real one and it looks like it should grade pretty strong as well.

I hope it turns out to be real and a great find. ;D

HH, Mark
 

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vthepresident

vthepresident

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

Thanks for all the info. I am definitely going to get it authenticated. I have never sent a coin off before, so does anyone reccomend one service over the other? All my graded coins are NGC.

The coin has a small dent in it similar to when we find coins that have been shot with a bullet, though much smaller. It is very tiny and doesn't take away much from the look of it. It is also flattened out a tiny bit on one edge, but again, all of the blemishes are miniscule.

I have been a sucker before, but I am hoping this time...

V
 

Kiros32

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

vthepresident said:
Thanks for all the info. I am definitely going to get it authenticated. I have never sent a coin off before, so does anyone reccomend one service over the other? All my graded coins are NGC.

The coin has a small dent in it similar to when we find coins that have been shot with a bullet, though much smaller. It is very tiny and doesn't take away much from the look of it. It is also flattened out a tiny bit on one edge, but again, all of the blemishes are miniscule.

I have been a sucker before, but I am hoping this time...

V

PCGS or NGC are the best from what I understand. Good luck man!
 

1235CE

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

I like everything about it.....the color, the wear, the lack of small bubbles that would indicate a cast copy, the offset strike, letter spacing and especially the small dent at the top.....who buys a copy of something and then damages it?.....that mark could have been the beginning of someone trying to make coin jewelry out of it and never did, not a distracting mark in my opinion anyways.........fingers crossed for you buddy......

HH all!

Greg
 

Falcon

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

Heck, the fun and emotions you're going through right now is worth it, real or not. Wishing you good luck :thumbsup:
 

Don in SJ

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

Like the others have said, looks good so far, could you post a clear view of the edge of the coin. Make sure you see no evidence of a seam or file marks on the edge. Also, like suggested, weigh it and diameter in mm. If you do all that and it looks legit, than think of getting it authenticated.

If there were electrotype copies made, they would match exactly the original coin the copy was made from, thus the reason for weighing and examining the edge closely to distinguish the difference.

Since they did circulate rather widely, good chance it is authentic.

Don
 

Burdie

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

Good Luck I hope it is real. Nice looking coin.

Burdie
 

JerV3

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

Man it looks real to me.

All the ideas here are correct. Weigh it check for size. Look at it under a jewlers loop to see if any of the nicks are another color of metal underneath them.

I hope you got the real deal man. Even if it's a great copy and it was made of real gold you'd still be alright. Let us know.

HH Jer
 

Historyhound

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

vthepresident said:
Thanks for all the info. I am definitely going to get it authenticated. I have never sent a coin off before, so does anyone reccomend one service over the other? All my graded coins are NGC.

The coin has a small dent in it similar to when we find coins that have been shot with a bullet, though much smaller. It is very tiny and doesn't take away much from the look of it. It is also flattened out a tiny bit on one edge, but again, all of the blemishes are miniscule.

I have been a sucker before, but I am hoping this time...

V

Maybe you can try here for starters, if it's not too far from you, and you have the patience to wait a month.

http://www.coinshows.com/bessemer_ans.html
 

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vthepresident

vthepresident

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

Thanks again for all the input. I did think about taking it to the Bessemer Coin show. I would be sweating bullets taking that baby in to that pack of wolves. Just kidding.

I am going to try to scan some edge pictures. Stay tuned.
V
 

aa battery

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Re: Please Please Please be real!

Close enough, Banner anyway :thumbsup:
 

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