Tungsten filled American Gold Eagles
Weiss
Posts: 9,935 ✭✭✭✭✭
From our own Meltdown on the PM forum. Figured it was important enough for everyone to know about. One may be easy to spot. But one mixed in with a roll of unaltered coins could cost someone a thousand dollars and their reputation.
Tungsten AGEs on the PM forum
Tungsten AGEs on the PM forum
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
--Severian the Lame
0
Comments
How did the buyer know?
From the thread, 2 failed the spectrometer test and 3 failed the ping test.
Buying slabbed AGEs would help.
Before being pried open, the seem was very difficult to see. They did not ping when tested the old fashioned way and 1 of them did initially pass the spectrometer test... later the tester revealed it was not legit.
Click on this link to see my ebay listings.
Click on this link to see my ebay listings.
Since the seller claimed he was duped, wouldn't confiscating the gold shells still be a bit stiff as they are still gold? How much gold was in the shells?
A very interesting question.
This kind of scamming is not cool, but the part of me that is a counterfeit collector does think it's a little cool. Too bad they didn't fill it with platinum.
From a collector point of view, would they cooler in a single piece where you can barely tell? Or are they cooler split apart?
Buying slabbed AGEs would help.
So would buying fractionals.
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
How did the buyer know?
From the thread, 2 failed the spectrometer test and 3 failed the ping test.
Buying slabbed AGEs would help.
But there are fake slabs out there, and being in a slab would prevent you from doing a ring test.
Cheers, RickO
Here's a 7-year old video of a CNC creating a 3-dimensional chess piece.
This is one of their high end machines. But you can buy one of this company's used machines on eBay for a few thousand dollars.
Considering that any bullion coin has known dimensions to the .0000 of an inch, you could write a top and bottom program for any coin you like, maximizing your gold harvest as much or as little as you like. Then it would literally mean pushing a button to create your milled out coin in a few seconds.
--Severian the Lame
I disagree about being able to see the seams, over 40 years ago I worked in a factory that made magician's effects... the owner Pat was a master machinist and using tools of that era made trick coins for magicians... these coins that were handed out to examine ALWAYS fooled the public... with today's machinery I doubt that you would see the seam, thinking about 12 grams of gold if done in quantity overseas could be quite profitable and would not surprise me. I had a fake 1/10 oz come into shop yesterday and the folks bought it back in the early 90's
That's why I said you would need a good 10X loupe with a good light source. The seam may not be visible with the naked eye but under high magnification you can see die flow of the metal including any interruptions in the die flow.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
I would like to see a magnified picture of the edge to determine how good the seam appears.
Cheers, RickO
The seam is not on the edge---it's just inside the rim.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
How did the buyer know?
From the thread, 2 failed the spectrometer test and 3 failed the ping test.
Buying slabbed AGEs would help.
But there are fake slabs out there, and being in a slab would prevent you from doing a ring test.
Of course, you would need to be able to identify fake slabs.
The good thing is that PCGS is improving their slabs and I haven't seen a counterfeit of their latest generation yet. PCGS says the new holders have multiple overt and covert security features to deter counterfeiters and identify counterfeit holders and are virtually impossible to replicate.
Using a 10X loupe with a good light source as PerryHall mentioned would still work. Would a spectrometer work through a slab?
I would like to see a magnified picture of the edge to determine how good the seam appears.
Cheers, RickO
The seam is not on the edge---it's just inside the rim.
Good post PerryHall.
How did the buyer know?
From the thread, 2 failed the spectrometer test and 3 failed the ping test.
Buying slabbed AGEs would help.
But there are fake slabs out there, and being in a slab would prevent you from doing a ring test.
Of course, you would need to be able to identify fake slabs.
The good thing is that PCGS is improving their slabs and I haven't seen a counterfeit of their latest generation yet. PCGS says the new holders have multiple overt and covert security features to deter counterfeiters and identify counterfeit holders and are virtually impossible to replicate.
Using a 10X loupe with a good light source as PerryHall mentioned would still work. Would a spectrometer through a slab?
A spectrometer wouldn't work because the outter shells are made from real coins.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
How did the buyer know?
From the thread, 2 failed the spectrometer test and 3 failed the ping test.
Buying slabbed AGEs would help.
But there are fake slabs out there, and being in a slab would prevent you from doing a ring test.
Of course, you would need to be able to identify fake slabs.
The good thing is that PCGS is improving their slabs and I haven't seen a counterfeit of their latest generation yet. PCGS says the new holders have multiple overt and covert security features to deter counterfeiters and identify counterfeit holders and are virtually impossible to replicate.
Using a 10X loupe with a good light source as PerryHall mentioned would still work. Would a spectrometer work through a slab?
A spectrometer wouldn't work because the outter shells are made from real coins.
2 of the 3 fakes were reported as failing a spectrometer test. Perhaps the shells were thin enough to fail?