Contemporary Counterfeits

I know you told me about this, but how much does it weigh? Be cool if we could figure out what the base metal is.

 

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It weighs 8.5 grams

 

Pretty light. Could be antimony. The brown color is throwing me off. That could be some sort of wash I guess. Very interesting piece.

 

That's a messed up "WE" on that coin!

 

I think the copper '43 is a modern counterfeit, not a contemporary.

 

The fact that people are dropping pics of modern counterfeits is a bad sign that a lot of them don't understand the difference

 

I ran across this one today

 

Actually you might want to look up what the word Contemporary means.

 

In this case, it's typical to focus on the FIRST definition, not the second. Like many words, the multiple meanings can cause confusion.

 

If this has been said already, I apologize for not reading the entire post before commenting......But wasn't one of the main reasons Britain did away with the one pound coin was because of all the counterfeits? Something like, one in five, or one in four of all such coins in circulation was believed counterfeit.

 

"Contemporary" has a confusing dictionary definition when applied to numismatics. Numismatics uses a specialized definition, wherein a contemporary counterfeit means a counterfeit which was produced at roughly the same time that the genuine article was being produced.

If it were up to me, I'd have picked a different word.

 

I suppose it depends on the context.
"Contemporary scholars have deemed his work to be highly influential"
- could mean either a) today's scholars deemed his work to be highly influential
or b) scholars who were around at the same time as him deemed his work to be highly influential.

The rest of the sentence or paragraph would give enough context to decide which option is being referred to.

 

con·tem·po·rar·y
kənˈtempəˌrerē/
adjective
adjective: contemporary
1.
living or occurring at the same time.
"the event was recorded by a contemporary historian"

Now sure what you meant.

 

The confusion arises because the dictionary definition is as listed in the previous post, but also has another meaning of "present day." Within a numismatic post, there may not be context which establishes which dictionary definition is to be used. So one must remember that the phrase "contemporary counterfeit" always means a counterfeit that was made about the same time the genuine article was made. (I use the term "modern counterfeit" to describe counterfeits of older coins made approximately today.)

@hotwheelsearl above says the meaning depends on context. That is true if you are using the word in general language. In numismatics, the phrase "I bought a contemporary counterfeit shield nickel" is sufficient without any other context to know that I bought a counterfeit which was made approximately in the second half of the 1800s.

 

For pieces that were intended to be spent at face value and blend in with other coins commonly circulating at the time, I prefer the term "vintage counterfeit".

 

That's not bad!

 

Numismat you dropped the second definition...

2.
belonging to or occurring in the present.
"the tension and complexities of our contemporary society"​

Which is the confusing difference between the English usage of the word and the numismatic!

 

In the spirit of the season: This is an observation,not directed at anyone in particular as this thread is loaded with good info.

IMO, "contemporary counterfeit" is a self defining, no wiggle-room term used to describe fakes that circulated along with genuine coins DURING WHATEVER TIME PERIOD WE WISH TO CONSIDER.

IMO, everything else is unnecessary gibberish no matter what is in a dictionary of English usage.

The observation I wish to make is perhaps this is the reason for much of the conflict we have on CT and everywhere. All of us have different backgrounds, training, views, and knowledge. Sometimes, even the books we use may be inaccurate or out of date.

 

IMO, that's too subjective a definition. "Whatever time period we wish to consider" leaves it up to the reader to pick the time frame. The time frame is not up to the reader - it is set by definition to be the period during which the genuine coins were manufactured and circulated.

An interesting case to consider is the Henning counterfeit Jefferson nickels. Jefferson nickels are still a currently manufactured and circulating design. So are the Hennings modern counterfeits or contemporary? I think you can make good arguments either way. For me, the (weasel) way out of that is to call them Henning counterfeits. If you pushed me, I'd side with contemporary rather than modern.

Looking up the word "contemporary" in the dictionary is not a useful way to resolve this. Like many other disciplines, numismatics uses language in a specialized way.