Your thoughts on this New Jersey Copper?

[diggummup]

I know nothing about Colonial coppers. This appears to be off centered. Are there many fakes of these coins? How does one tell? Shouldn't a coin of this era have been slabbed already? Wouldn't ya think? Especially an "error" coin? It's for sale and I want to get some opinions from you guys first.

 

[1235CE]

I like everything about it....... ....... very correct color, no apparent bubbles (which are common on cast, counterfeit coins) and although not a great thing to have on the coin from a value standpoint, I also like the "old" gouge in the shield..............now I know that the people who make fake coins are very good at what they do but this coin has too many positives and I can't find a negative here.

Why hasn't it been slabbed?.....who knows?....I would guess maybe it has been in someone's family for a long time (and if it has, that would be another good reason to believe it is authentic.)

As for the "error", yes , definitely off-center but this was much more common back in the day so I wouldn't pay any additional premium for that factor.

Weight and diameter would be the only things that I don't know about as these 2 things would be important to me.......any chance this coin can be checked out by a professional before purchasing?

As I said, my money is on "real" and I hope this helps.......please keep us posted!

HH all!

Greg

 

[l.cutler]

I have quite a few and none are slabbed, actually most colonial collectors don't like slabbed coins. Off center colonial coins are very common due to the crude minting process. It looks like a nice one to me. I don't have my variety identification books handy, if someone doesn't chime in with the variety soon I can dig them out.

 

[Don in SJ]

I fully concur with l.cutler, most colonial coin collectors despise slabbed colonials, so leave it be and if selling sell as is. It appears to be a common variety Maris 32-T, so not too valuable, but definetly sellable.. I will look thru my recent catalogs for selling prices for rough guesstimate. LOOKED at a few catalogs and hard to tell from their photos and yours for comparison, but I saw one in the $400 range and one around $325 and one at $80 and $125, so guess your range is somewhere in there. I am not quite sure how they come to their prices, good luck......

In the meantime, since your photos are on severe angles, I cannot say 100% on the attribution, but fairly sure, so you can compare and look for differences, if any, taking into account it being off center, which is not uncommon.

Compare with this one listed. http://www.coinfacts.com/colonial_coins/new_jersey_coppers/maris_32T_new_jersey_copper.htm

Don

 

[diggummup]

Thanks for the information guys, I appreciate all of your input.