1876-CC 20 Cent Piece Counterfeit Coin

Knowledge is power when it comes to determining whether a coin is fake or not. Knowing the mintage and the history are the most important aspects when observing a coin. 

In this particular example from NGC's website, we have a real example and a fake example of an 1876-CC 20 cent coin. Which coin do you think is the fake one and which is the real one?

The first piece of information is that this coin was produced from 1875-1878. Because this coin was very similar to the quarter, the general public got confused by it, which led to the mint halting production of the coin.

In 1876, the Carson City mint was told to stop mintage after they had already produced 10000 of them. As a result, only 24 of these coins are known to exist to this day, and will typically sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction.

As a result, the coins that are still around today were kept in great condition as collectors knew what this coin could be worth someday.

This, combined with the poor quality of the details on the first coin suggest that it is a counterfeit. Due to the high mintage of the 1876 coin, a counterfeiter could modify a regular 1876 coin and turn it into an 1876-CC. 

However, it is difficult to replicate the condition that an 1876-CC should be in as depicted in the 2nd picture.