2022 Overall Highlights

As we wind-down 2022, I want to thank you all who participated and continue to participate in building the content of this subject. 2022 was another banner year in documenting new die struck contemporary counterfeit U.S. coin varieties. I did not document the number of new varieties reported, but it was at least a few dozen. For example, hand-made die-struck counterfeit CBH varieties are a popular collecting subject. We ended the 2021 CBH collection census with 303 varieties and at the end of 2022 we added 5 more varieties to that list to document 308 varieties, including a new counterfeit CBH variety being just identified this month (December)! That new variety is a Square Tip family variety combining the obverse of 1826 Davignon 14-N with the reverse of 1821 Davignon 6-H, and thus could be considered a ‘transition’ variety. Congrats to the new owner!

The latest Bad Metal Silver book is a consistent success based on the feedback I’ve received. As always, a special thanks goes to all those involved, from large to little involvement, because a project like this is a community effort. Sales of the book are and have been solid and I’m gradually approaching offsetting that printing expense.

Also, earlier this month I was interviewed by the folks at the Coin World Podcast and that episode is either out now or will be shortly. A link to all the episodes is here: https://www.coinworld.com/coinworld-podcast

Website Updates

Overall updates to the website have been slow. However, in the next couple months I do plan to list most/all of the counterfeit varieties from Bad Metal Copper and Nickel.

The sale I posted in the last blog post is still going through the end of December (5 more days).

My Collection Additions in 2022

I added a handful of varieties to my collection in 2022. I acquired a previously undocumented variety of 1853 3cS just two months before the Bad Metal Silver book was submitted to the printer; I would have kicked myself if this variety was identified and acquired after publication. I acquired 3 new hand-made die struck counterfeit CBHs, and that met my minimum goal of new varieties to that collection per year despite it becoming increasingly more difficult to add any of varieties to my advanced collection. I added 2 hand-made, die struck counterfeit Seated half dollar varieties and this was a pleasant surprise. I acquired a fantasy-date Barber half dollar variety which I’ll reveal sometime in 2023. I also added a handful of counterfeit gold dollars, quarter eagles and half eagles. But the highlight of 2022 happened in September when I bought a brand-new variety and date of Flowing Hair half dollar counterfeit dated 1887 and this variety is associated with the First Family where 5 other varieties dated 1787 and 1878 are known. This was an absolutely unexpected find, a variety I never, ever imagined existed, and is now one of my favorite counterfeits that I own.

Unfortunately, I did not fill any holes in my counterfeit Shield nickel, Seated dime, or Seated quarter sets, and I even traded away a crude counterfeit Seated quarter variety to improve another collection. These are three sets I really like and want to eventually complete, but I had no such luck this year. If you have any of these for sale or trade please let me know! Thanks.

Final Thoughts

I’d love to hear what you all acquired this year in your collections. So please leave a comment and create your own blog post if you’d like.

Sincerely,

Winston