I believe that it is a genuine piece cast by Harbour Lights, ALL of the piece with the exception of the flag area appears to be identical to the piece with the flag intact. The time and energy and expense to create a fake would far outweigh the potential $$$ it would take in unless the fake were produced in mass and since no others have popped up I don't think it was mass produced.

Now, here's what I think may have happened. I remember at some time in the past HL had a piece with some sort of problem (I don't remember which piece) and to get a replacement piece you could send them back the broken off flag and Hl would send out a replacement. The flag only was returned to reduce the shipping cost of returning the bad pieces. And I think that this piece had it's flag removed, possibly because the owner thought he had to do so to get a correctly spelled replacement. Then later someone made a repair and put it up for sale.

Does the piece has the misspelled sign ? If so, that would support my theory, if it is spelled correctly it shoots down my theory as to a motive for the repair job, but either way I firmly believe that it is a genuine HL cast piece with a repair job to the flag area.

That's my 2 cents