China Empire Dollar (Fakes are possible) 1907

Tomasz sent us this picture of his old Chinese silver dollar. The thing with this dragon coin is the strong possibility that it is a counterfeit. To me it looks like it might be a counterfeit. The strike is not very crisp and clear, which is usually the give-away, but the pattern looks good. There is a good web site on this subject, click to Dragon-Dollar.info.

Look in the yellow pages or other directory and try to find a coin dealer near you. He or she can often tell you if your coin is real or fake. Look below and at this CoinQuest Page for a side-by-side comparison of a genuine and counterfeit dragon coin. One of our favorite experts on such matters is Robert Kokotailo at Calgary Coin in Canada.

The sure way to determine authenticity of a valuable old coin like this is to submit it for grading, encapsulation, and authentication to one of the following services: PCGS, NGC, ICG, or ANACS. Look these up on the Internet. Do not use other services.

If the coin from Tomasz is real (maybe not), the catalogs quote hefty values:

worn: $200 US dollars approximate catalog value
average circulated: $700
well preserved: $1500
fully uncirculated: $2200

Use our Important Terminology page to figure out what 'catalog value' means. It is probably not what you think!

The graphic below gives a clear comparison of real and fake Chinese dollars. We have highlighted (with the arrow) one prominent problem. But the overall appearance and strength of strike makes a marked difference between the two coins.

CoinQuest thanks Stack's Bowers for use of their image of the genuine Empire dollar. It is a gorgeous coin.
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