1917 London Mint Fake Sovereign

Discussion in 'World Coins' started by honeybee, Jul 28, 2010.

  1. honeybee

    honeybee New Member

    Hi,
    I have a George V sovereign with no mint marks and I know that these are rare. I wonder if anyone might know how much it is worth and also if anyone has additional information or links to sites that may help me in my studies.
     
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  3. Prestoninanus

    Prestoninanus Junior Member

    Whether or not a George V Sovereign with no mintmark (i.e. London Mint) is rare depends on the date. A 1916 will be scarce, and a 1917 extremely rare. However, most date/mintmark combos of George V Sovereigns are very common and only carry a small premium over spot...

    If you want some more information, try this site:

    http://www.goldsovereigns.co.uk/index.php

    The prices are usually horrendously out of date, but other than that, the information on sovs is probably the best there is on the internet...
     
  4. honeybee

    honeybee New Member

    George v sovereign

    Thanks for the info. I will check it out.
     
  5. Chard Coins

    Chard Coins New Member

    1917 London Mint Fake Sovereign - Definitive Answer

    Obviously this answer is a little late, but...
    We are working on Spanish time here in Blackpool.:smile

    We can tell you it does not belong to London (note the capital L), it belongs to you. :smile

    Seriously now, it is one of the more obvious fakes.

    Several members have commented quite correctly that it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to authenticate a coin from a photo. The reverse however is not true; it is often possible to detect a fake from a photo alone.

    Simply find good photo of any genuine sovereigns from the same period, and compare yours. There are numerous features which are diagnostic:

    Both sides are struck very noticeably off-centre.
    The engraving is slighlty clumsy and childish, particularly the obverse portrait.
    The date numerals do not match those on genuine George V sovereigns.
    1917 - L is rare, despite the high mintage. Counterfeits are common, including excellent 1970's Lebanese ones.
    The entire surface of the coin appears to be very grainy as though the coin had been cast, which it probably was.

    One member commented that the lack of a mintmark may be because a commoner mint mark had been removed; this method of faking a London mint coin is very rare, and would almost certainly be noticeable from your photos.

    Fretboard is being rather kind when he says "beautiful gold piece"; we disagree and would rather tell you the truth even if it is not what you want to hear.

    Don't be too harsh on any dealers who do not reply, most are very busy trying to make a living, and keep up with paying enquiries. Giving free appraisals or opinions would need a large full time team of unpaid experts; this would be in itself a rarity, (even more so in the legal profession).

    Your third coin appears to be a 1923 London Mint sovereign. It also is a fake. The fact that London Mint did not strike sovereigns that year is a clue. It is one fake we have not noticed before, but we probably will see another one soon.

    It we had to guess, we would say that both your George V fakes were made in Spain, but only because that's where you are from. Spain has an ancient jewellery industry, and it is likely that your coins are copies made by jewellery manufacturers for resale, either as genuine or as fakes, and possibly mounted in jewellery.
    Italy also has a similar industry, and there are many eastern Mediterranean countries where many fake coins are made.

    Prestoninanus is correct that many of our prices are out of date.
    We now have over 10,000 web pages, some of which contain more than 100 "products". Most of the time, at least one of our 15+ employees is occupied in editing and updating, but even so, we happily :) cannot keep up.

    Lawrence Chard

    To translate into Spanish, we suggest you use Google:
    http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en
     
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