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Help with fake Sovereign? G21 mark in obverse field.

WeissWeiss Posts: 9,942 ✭✭✭✭✭
in World & Ancient Coins Forum

Friend of mine sent me a text with a bunch of coins left by their grandfather. The kind of pre-Krugerrand stuff you'd expect to see in a mid-century smaller gold hoard.

I was just going back over the images when I realized the image of a sovereign had strange marks on it (forgive me: It was on my cell phone and I'm, like, old and stuff).

Had a chance to download and blow it up and clean it up. Says "G21" in the field.

Google shows a few very thin mentions of this and a similar "MOM21" in the field, showing these to be mid-century counterfeits likely made in the middle-east. But it's unclear if they are the good gold but fake variety or just plain old fake varieties.

Anyone have a source that's a little more respectable or legit? I'd like to be able to send these friends something, but I can't seem to find anything that looks definitive.

We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
--Severian the Lame

Comments

  • 7Jaguars7Jaguars Posts: 7,583 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Seen this somewhere before and NOT a Royal Mint product. Perhaps 21 karat gold?

    Love that Milled British (1830-1960)
    Well, just Love coins, period.
  • ExbritExbrit Posts: 1,321 ✭✭✭✭

    I believe there was a post on this some time ago. I seem to remember that 7jags is right about the mark.

  • SapyxSapyx Posts: 2,263 ✭✭✭✭✭

    What you have here is indeed a "Middle Eastern Jewellery copy" of a sovereign. In Dubai, one of the world's largest gold markets, it is legal to make and sell fake gold coins - so long as the coins are actually made of gold, and the gold fineness of the fakes is clearly marked on them. The fake-makers make their profits by charging the tourists the same standard bullion rate as genuine coins for their fakes, but either making the gold slightly more dilute than a genuine coin, or the correct fineness but slightly lightweight.

    This one, at 21k gold, is in the "slightly less fine" class (genuine sovereigns are 22k). "G" is probably the initial of the company that made and sold it.

    Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
    Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"

    Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD. B)
  • WeissWeiss Posts: 9,942 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thanks, guys. I'll pass the info along!

    We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
    --Severian the Lame
  • tpcob303tpcob303 Posts: 35 ✭✭

    I have seen these for sale in Arabic countries, they are not real sovereigns, they are copies of past sovereigns however they tend to be made from real gold so if you buy one or are thinking of, only pay spot price based on weight and karat.

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