Must read Liteside post

1960NYGiants

Counterfeit detection

A very interesting post that I believe we darksiders would benefit from.

koincollect

Nice collection of facts and would certainly help a newbie. Thanks for pointing it out.

Do any of you guys knowingly buy a counterfeit just to fill in that hole or a coin which you like but is way beyond your budget?

satootoko

<< <i>Do any of you guys knowingly buy a counterfeit just to fill in that hole or a coin which you like but is way beyond your budget? >>

Not for those purposes, but when I find a high grade counterfeit at a low enough price I add it to my black box for comparison purposes and to aid me in detection. As a collector of 19th-early 20th Century Japanese silver, there are tons of counterfeits from China trying to get in my pockets.

TwoKopeiki

What's scary is that counterfeiters are getting much better. They are starting to use dies, instead of moulds. For example, I recently acquired a copy of a Carolus III 8 Reales, which was struck in sterling silver. At first glance it looked tooled, but when I examined the damage closer, I realized that the tooling was on the die itself. That lead me to believe that it might have been a soft-metal, or dental plaster die. What also gave it away is that there was no design overlap on the edge. The way the authentic bust 8 reales were edged, the only time when there wouldn't be a pair (or two, or 3) of overlaps is when the coin popped out of the edger and wasn't put back in, allowing for a break in edge design in 2 places.

Give it 10 more years and even the experts wouldn't be able to distinguish the fakes from the real coins, except with a metal composition analysis, or specific gravity.

Scary....

Ricke

That was a good post - well put together, too.

theboz11

<< <i>Do any of you guys knowingly buy a counterfeit just to fill in that hole or a coin which you like but is way beyond your budget? >>



The only one I have intentionally purchased was for a minor collection of Cars on coins and I picked up a counterfeit China car to add to it. The collection is not significant enough to waste big bucks on.

Stork

Thanks for the link, I would have missed it otherwise.

Preussen

Interesting post. -Preussen