My elderly and temporarily road-fatigued brain forgot to include the photo of FAKE slave-tags I mentioned in my previous post. Here's the photo. It shows some of the many variations of fakes.
Besides being an incorrect shape, some of these have an incorrect lettering-style. None of the genuine slave-tags have non-serifed ("plain block") lettering. For anybody here who doesn't already know the difference between serifed letters and "plain block" letters, compare the lettering on the Kings Farm one with the Mobile one. But remember, all four in the photo are fakes.
Anytime a relic is worth $1,000+ (or even $100), some people are going to come out the woodwork to manufacture fakes of it. Collectors must learn to identify the fakes in whatever subject-area of relics they collect.
Gathering knowledge from reputable sources, reading reference books, and gaining an education in the real deal is most beneficial in spotting the many dubious and phony products that taint the collecting world.
There are
Fake items, and then there are
Fantasy items. To better understand the difference and hopefully shed further light in proper identification of items, I would like to politely clarify if I may. The photo examples posted for reference by Professor Cannonball Guy, are actually in fact
"Fantasy Slave Tags". A
fake slave tag may appear at first glance to be correct in nearly all the details, and can be quite the dangerous item to unknowing collectors, with many features such as city (CHARLESTON), number, occupation, and year, quite similar to an authentic specimen. A
fantasy slave tag however, will be almost entirely the product of someone's imagination, and be almost laughable with various engravings, names of plantations, words such as negro / slave, names of a person, special rights for travel, unusual occupations, and on and on in nearly an endless array of falsified craziness.
Fake items can be very difficult to spot, and are a great danger as these are the ones that can potentially trade at a premium to unwary dealers and duped collectors. In the field of American Civil War and Western America collectibles, fake and fantasy belt buckles and plates are yet another area of discussion. A belt buckle depicting a stagecoach and featuring the wording WELLS FARGO GUARD, would be a
Fantasy item. A two-piece CS buckle however, recently cast in the style of an original Memphis Novelty Works piece, and carrying no distinctive marking on the back showing this as a modern reproduction, would be an outright
Fake.
To add better perspective here is another comparison:
If a counterfeit $100 bill is created with nearly every detail correct, and even the experienced eyes may be fooled, then we are dealing with a
fake.
A currency bill carrying the likeness of Micky Mouse, and showing the value of $1,000,000., would of course fall into the category of
fantasy.
In regards to the "lettering style" on fake and/or fantasy Slave Tags, and the difference between serifed font letters (earlier style) and block letters (more modern); a key point is that on authentic Slave Hire Badges, the letters and numbers for city, occupation, and year, are in fact not depressed or punched lettering at all, but rather raised mark letters and numbers with the surrounding area of the lettering/number being depressed (much like the RMDC backmark style known to Civil War button collectors, which is Raised Mark Depressed Channel). The only portion that is individually hand punched with a depressed symbol on authentic Slave Hire Badges (slave tags), is the identification number in mid to later years (the first decade or so of the Charleston Slave Hire Badges, the identification number is actually hand engraved, rather than punched).
Hopefully this adds further insight to correctly identify the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
CC Hunter
