Counterfeit Collecting

Does anyone here on Cointalk collect counterfeit coins? Altered coins? Is it legal to sell a fake coin if you state it as such?

Can you sell fake currency does the US Treasury require you to turn it in?

Bruce

 

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MODS- Could you move this thread to Coin Chat? Thanks,

Bruce

 

I know Hobo has quite a collection of them, and I have counterfeits of all Lincoln key dates, AND some you would not expect ( or see very often ).

 

Great! Thanks for the info. I can always learn stuff here on CoinTalk.

Bruce

 

Counterfeit coins and currency of the US type can be confiscated at the will of the government. However, the feds won't mess with them unless fraud is involved.

I have a bunch of foreign fakes of contemporary design from ancient roman, to british pounds.

 

I really like counterfeits. I find them facinating. From all the info I have read and heard it is not illegal to possess counterfeit coins unless your intent is to defraud or deceive and it is OK to sell a counterfeit coin as long as you sell it as a counterfeit. (This is in no way to be considered legal advice.)

I own a number of counterfeits. I like really, really good counterfeits that fool people, especially dealers. I especially like contemporary counterfeits (that were created out of base metals or at least short on their precious metals content) to be spent as opposed to modern counterfeits that are created to defraud collectors. My favorite contemporary counterfeit is a 3 Cent Silver made from hand-cut dies. I also have a couple of Bust Halves and a Bust Dime.

Some of the modern Chinese counterfeits crack me up. I really like my 1848-S Seated Liberty Dollar. (The Mint at San Francisco didn't open until several years after 1848.)

Once I get my coin photography skills down I'll post some of my counterfeit collection. (My Digital Coin Photography course begins tomorrow.)

 

I have a well circulated V nickel that has seen an AWFUL lot of circulation, which is odd considering the thickness is way off, and I recently picked up a couple of 1922 fake Morgans. Not sure why they picked a common date and only made them 3/4 of the weight of a real Morgan... I'm sure they had their reasons.

Oh, and I almost forgot my pocket piece... a 1908 American silver eagle. I actually bought it on eBay thinking it was a silver round (the pictures were nice and blurry) and I got it for spot, but when I saw the date and saw the coin, it was obviously a fake. I made a claim with PayPal and the seller quickly gave me a full refund and never asked for the coin back.

 

That is not a common date for Morgans. The last year for Morgans was 1921.

 

Whoops, my bad... I meant 1921. lol

I was playing with some new Peace dollars tonight, 4 of which turned out to be 1922. Must have that date on the brain.

 

It happens to the best of us.

For a while I thought perhaps you had a fantasy coin kind of like my 1848-S Seated Lib Dollar.

 

No reason why it's not collectible. I got an Australian 2 dollar counterfeit coin in change, and got some other bizarre coins as well such as a Chinese 1 yuan coin, which is a mere 12 US cents in face value.

 

I got a few counterfeit Toonies a couple of weeks ago. I certainly won't be putting them back into circulation!

 

That is the slickest way to get a counterfeit coin. 4 F R E E very kewl.

 

Contemporary counterfeits are really neat to collect.

There are two Jefferson nickels that were so good everyone accepted them in change.
(someone help me here I know that the counterfeiter's name is famous, but I am just out of it today.)

 

Francis Hennings.

http://www.smalldollars.com/dollar/add014.html

 

Henning. I have one of his nickels. His nickels were so good they almost went undetected until collectors noticed his 1944 nickels did not have a mintmark above Montecello.

 

My Henning Nickel. The only counterfeit I had to own. Just fasinates my why anyone would want to go to jail for counterfeiting nickels of all things!

 

Becoming a large collectable lately. At coin shows lately I've noticed dealers selling counterfeit coins for as much and in some instances more than the original. If the counterfeit was made with great detail they are now bringing a fairly large price meaning it actually pays to say it is a counterfeit rather than an original.

 

Has there ever been a confirmed case of a conterfeited counterfeit for that exact reason . I Know I paid more for my Henning that I would have for a 1944P MS65.