Click image to enlarge.
Not all counterfeit coins are made to deceive collectors. Some are contemporary alterations made in an effort to pass the coin off in circulation as a piece with a higher-value denomination. This was the curious case for a mid-19th-century Canadian provincial coin recently submitted to PCGS for authentication and grading.
The circulated coin hailed from New Brunswick, a province of Canada that issued its own circulating coinage from 1861 through 1864. Among these coins was a 20 cent piece struck in 1862 and 1864, each with a mintage of 150,000. Canada struck circulating coinage in 1858 and then starting again in 1870, producing coins consistently since the latter date. Canada emitted its first 25 cent coins in 1870 and effectively replaced the 20 cent coin that was struck in 1858.
The replacement of the 20 cent coin with a 25 cent piece led to some potential confusion; while the Newfoundland 20 cent coins are distinctive from the 25 cent issue Canada began striking in 1870, the New Brunswick 20 cent coin looked very much like the Canadian quarter that debuted in 1870. As such, some unscrupulous individuals attempted to remove the inscription denoting the 20 cent denomination on those coins to pass them off as 25 cent coins, gaining a five-cent profit in the scheme. Making matters even more perplexing is that the New Brunswick 20 cent coins have a 23.27-millimeter diameter, while the Canadian 25 cent coin has a diameter of 23.88 millimeters – virtually identical widths, at a glance. Even the weights of the two coins made it difficult to tell apart in the hand, with the 20 cent coin weighing 4.648 grams and the quarter 5.81 grams.
This 1862 New Brunswick 20 Cents submitted to PCGS was a victim of this deceptive practice involving the removal of the denomination, which was purposely smoothed away to remove the 20; additional scratching was added in that area of the coin to further hide the denomination. While the coin itself is genuine, the alteration as imparted on the coin renders it not genuine.