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 Replies: 14 / Views: 931 |
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New Member
United States
4 Posts |
Spoke with an old-timer about X's on older silver dollars. He mentioned after the war (WWII) when Europe was decimated, a lot of banks, brokers, and dealers overseas would scratch the silver coin to ensure it was real silver and not just a silver coating. Lots of fakes during that time coming out of Asia after the war. So likely if you see those little X marks on a silver coin, it just meant it was used overseas at some point in time during that era.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3619 Posts |
If that is correct, I would assume the same concept applies to earlier types as well. For most draped bust and capped bust silver denominations, engraved Xs are not uncommon.
I think people scratched into coins as an authenticity test in both domestic and foreign nations. You can't exactly tie such a simple form of damage to a single continent. Any 5 year old can do it. It is too difficult to prove, unless the mark is a language or local form of marking such as a Chinese chopmark.
Suffering from bust half fever. Want to learn how to attribute early half dollars by die variety? Click Here: http://goccf.com/t/434955Shoot me a PM if you are looking to sell bust halves. |
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
94367 Posts |
Any pics to share?  to the CCF! |
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New Member
 United States
4 Posts |
Attached are photos of a real Morgan with the X's and a fake one with just the silver coating. On the fake one you can see the iron rusting underneath on a piece that chipped off on the cheek.   |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5124 Posts |
With respect to the old timers story just that a story. US Morgan dollars were never used in Commerce in Asia or Europe . The coins you find scratched or X ed probably done in the good ole USA. Trade dollars of the 1870s were used in somewhat limited quantities in SE Asia and China ( not popular) . You will find them with Oriental Chop marks on occasion . |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4629 Posts |
Never heard anything like that before.........
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Moderator
United States
21723 Posts |
Sounds like a fairy tale to me?
but I have been wrong before
rggoodie
aka Richard
"catch em doing something right"
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Pillar of the Community
United States
878 Posts |
Sounds like this is about chopmarks, but found mostly on Spanish milled dollars.
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Moderator
United States
64151 Posts |
to CCF.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1757 Posts |
Welcome to CCF! In my opinion those X on the Morgan are just intentional graffiti. They aren't deep enough to get through a silver layer. Sometimes test cuts were done from the edge. Fake coins have been made nearly as long as coins were invented roughly 700BC in Lydia, ancient Turkey. Forgers would use a copper center with outer layer of silver. Here is my ancient Greek Athens silver tetradrachm 5th cent. BC with a big test cut to verify it's all silver, obverse Athena, reverse owl.  Edited by livingwater
01/09/2025 09:21 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
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Moderator
United States
157664 Posts |
to the Community!
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New Member
United States
4 Posts |
Thank you for all the Welcome signs, no doubt this is a great community and website.
Great discussions all around on the X marks. I'm lucky to have both the real and fake in my collection. What I will say is the layer of silver is VERY thin on the fake, enough to where you can use your fingernail to chip it off or even a dental pick to expose the iron underneath. It's flaky enough to where it may not even be a silver layer (I haven't tested it yet). You wouldn't have to create a deep gouge in the coin to see what's underneath. The other possibility here is a scratch or hardness test was the reason for the X's, especially if fakes at the time were coated in something not silver.
I'll find some time to test the coating on the fake, see what it's made of and report back.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1757 Posts |
There are three x on the coin, including one on eagle's breast. I still think they are graffiti. If it was a test for fake and hardness there's no reason to do it three times. All three x are superficial, especially the breast x is very lightly scratched. To me none are deep enough to penetrate even a thin layer of silver. But it's fun to speculate.
Edited by livingwater
01/10/2025 1:00 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United Kingdom
16076 Posts |
My 1885-O dollar has an X on the obverse to the left of Anna Willess Williams' portrait:  |
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Replies: 14 / Views: 931 |
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Posted 01/08/2025 6:41 pm
