A hard to attribute 1889-O here

[vamtiques]

Now there are many little things going on here that made it not-pin-able to any known vam yet...

The obverse date is slanted with the 9 higher than the 1 (the 9 is open with doubling at the opening), and the first 8 has a die chip in the right vee. The date also has a few raised bumps around it perhaps from a rusted die, plus the R in liberty has a small feature in the loop. There are also what appears to be a 'strip' of denticle impressions on the forehead but this may not be done at the mint. There are also 2 small clash lines at the nape of the neck and chin, but interestingly, no transfer to the reverse.

The reverse has no noticable clash marks, but has two tiny die scratches on the wing top edges into the field. The mintmark is higher and centered. Interestingly there are no die cracks anywhere on this coin.

[vamtiques]

And the obverse.
PS, those features at the eye are actual scratches...

[...kenny]

Uhhmm, is there any ear fill? The font looks off to me too...kenny

[vamtiques]

Actually, there is no ear fill/doubling noticable that I could see, so could this be another contemporary counterfeit yet undiscovered?

[...kenny]

You have the coin in hand, but to me from here, it looks counterfeit. But I think, not of US, from away...kenny

[messydesk]

I'm going to agree with Chinese counterfeit here. The date and stars are too chubby and the central obverse lacks detail.

[DHalladay]

I'm going to agree with Chinese counterfeit here. The date and stars are too chubby and the central obverse lacks detail.

Agreed, plus no ear fill.

[pup_picker]

goodness.

a polished m, double neck clash etc.

if they get much better and get closer to the us mint method, we'll start seeing similar traits on counterfeit coins that could inspire some ideas for missing links/mysteries in authentic ones. oh the irony!

for those of you not well-versed in counterfeit detection or just rusty, take note for morgans that the hair detail will have deep and flat areas between the strands that can be seen on this coin as well as that ear area. if it is really evenly flat inside and out, red flag big time. this can be seen on some others as well, barbers first come to mind. a few i've seen recently and over the years.

[vamtiques]

Thanks all for helping shed some light on this interesting specimen. Now since we all seem to be on some agreement here, I'll say how much I paid for it; was 35.00 bucks (I don't think the dealer I bought it from knew it might be counterfeit). Now there might be some possibility of it being a new vam, but not too likely.

If this then is a counterfeit, then I wonder what vams the counterfeiters actually had to produce said original post, hmmm, I guess the vams I looked at already? Feel free to use my photos on this website, and I can always upload more if I need to on this particular coin.