Chloe accurately describes a Seated Liberty silver dollar, but they did not make Seated Liberty silver dollars in 1877. After an e-mail exchange, Chloe sent us a picture of her mystery dollar. Something, isn't it?
The only SL dollars with an O mint mark were struck in 1850, 1859, and 1860. Since the O mint mark plainly shows, It looks like the date 1850, 1859, or 1860 was changed to 1877. Look at the date closely. You can readily see the alteration.
We contacted Alan Herbert, repsected author of
Coin Collecting 101, as well as Dan Moore of
Working Man's Coins. Both of these experts say the same thing. Chloe has a modern Chinese couterfiet of a non-existant US coin. You can see Dan's full answer at
AllExperts.com.
In summary, the value of a modern Chinese counterfiet is essentially zero. In America, it is illegal to own counterfeit coins unless they are properly annotated with the word COPY stamped into the design.
