It might seem like nonsense that someone would intentionally lower the grade of a coin, but in some instances it is part of an elaborate attempt to deceive. In this case, a 1793 Liberty Cap cent in extremely high grade arrived at PCGS for grading and authentication. The coin's surfaces were marred by a moderate amount of environmental damage, but a grade of VF35 (or so) might have been a possibility as a compromise grade. There was one problem, though. The coin was an outright counterfeit.
This coin is usually called the "93 Cap" for short, and it's a one-year type with a mintage of only 11,056 pieces. There are six die marriages known from four different obverse dies and two different reverses. This coin doesn't match any of them! In addition, there are characteristics of the genuine '93 Cap cents that aren't found on this fake, such as weakness in the central reverse lettering.
The moment this coin was pulled out of the box there were alarm bells going off (figuratively speaking, of course). This coin just didn't look right. After a little detective work it was discovered that this coin was struck at a privately owned Mint as a replica coin. Somehow the required word COPY was left off (no, it hadn't been filled in) and the coin fell into the wrong hands. By completely taking away the luster and adding some fake environmental damage it was hoped by someone that this pseudo-coin would be perceived as a previously undiscovered variety or as an important "find" in the world of 18th-century rarities.
While this counterfeit has no value it was insured for $70,000 when it arrived at PCGS. I'm certain that the message is clear.
Rick Montgomery has been a professional coin grader since 1980. He was a grader at the American Numismatic Association Certification Service (ANACS) from 1980 to 1985. He was the ANACS Director from 1985 to 1987. Rick joined PCGS in 1987 and was named President of the company in 1997. In his tenure at PCGS, he has verified the final grades for over 5,000,000 coins. Rick is the co-author of "The Official Guide To Coin Grading And Counterfeit Detection," the Numismatic Literary Guild's "Book Of The Year" award winner for 1998. Today, Rick is considered the world's top expert on U.S. coin counterfeit detection.
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