3D printers: End of numismatics as we know it?

This subject was broached before and I quickly dismissed it as too futuristic.

I'm not sure anymore:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aghzpO_UZE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP1oBwccARY

It may be a couple decades away, but the idea of being able to produce a nearly exact copy of a coin could have a dramatic effect on numismatics and the TPG's who will try to detect the copies.


guy

 

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scary!

 

Couldn't see it, the luster, details, i just can't imagine it.

 

Not sure if a 3D printer can replicate the surfaces of a minted coin?

 

Thankfully coins aren't made of plastic, yet. Although I'm sure they will probably adapt these printers to work with metals eventually but in the mean time that may be a barrier to people counterfeiting coins by printing them.

 

Agreed!

 

They do have these kind of printers that do work with metals. What kinds I'm not sure....would have to talk to my engineering friend.

 

They may not be able to replicate a coin with luster but they probably could make a near perfect die that could produce the luster needed.

 

Should "basically" be doable. Here is a metallic scarab style pendant, for example, which you can buy in various sizes and styles: http://www.shapeways.com/model/71278/scarab-pendant.html So it will not be too difficult to reproduce the surface of a coin this way. The tricky part, I think, would be to get the composition or alloy right ...

Christian

 

I'm not sure what kinds either, but I have seen a video of one that worked with some kind of metal.

 

Good point.

 

Yes! I have thought about this before. We have plenty of time before the tech is advanced enough to adequately duplicate the surfaces of a coin. But someday...

 

The fact that these printers can be used to make plastic guns that really shoot but cannot be picked up by a metal detector is indeed scary. TC

http://www.newser.com/story/159720/these-actually-exist-3d-printed-guns.html

 

I am the one who brought that up before- and we are looking at 5 to 7 years not decades

 

You can always get your own 3D printer. They are not that expensive, and for some, less than the cost of a single coin

https://store.makerbot.com/replicator2.html

But it's not a real maker unless it can self replicate...

http://www.reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

now all we need is SkyNet.

 

they have had those for quite a while (metal ones). http://singularityhub.com/2012/03/2...-than-dust-mites-and-sets-a-new-world-record/

this one is a little different but very cool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RnIvhlKT7SY

 

I spoke to my engineering friend about this today. He's telling me currently they can only print in powdered metal which would not be mistaken even remotely for any coins. They cannot make anything that would look like the finish of a coin either at this point. Somewhere down the line I'm sure it will happen though....

 

If the production of these replica coins is "perfected" one day, I wonder whether the slabbed coins from a time before this "near perfection" will command a premium since coins slabbed earlier are more likely authentic.

guy

 

I guess I just don't see the danger. A coin is not strictly just the metal, it also internally conveys the method of manufacture. I simply do not see how any type of 3d printer can replicate metal flow lines, luster imparted from molten metal created at the time of strike, etc.

We have had people faking our coins for a very long time. The most convincing fakes always have been those fakes made exactly how the originals were made. I do not see this changing.

Now, get some kind of Star Trek replicator, that breaks everything dow to the atomic level and recreates the object atom by atom, and sure. But by then I am sure some idiot will crank out a bunch of nukes and destroy mankind anyway, so fake coins will not be our major concern.

 

Look at it this way. Inkjet printers started out about where 3D printers are today -- they worked, but the copies they produced were pretty crude. They quickly got MUCH better, to the point where they're now the go-to technology for photo printing, producing images with better resolution and accuracy than old-fashioned photo processes.

But have they killed the market for fine artwork? Are they producing indistinguishable copies of old currency? No, and they won't. They may make copies that are hard to distinguish with a casual glance, but there are too many characteristics that they can't replicate.

Coins are different, in a number of ways. But by the time 3D-printing technology has advanced enough to make "nearly indistinguishable" copies, diagnostic technology will have advanced as well. Imagine being able to get a fine-grained readout of a coin's metallic (and even isotopic) composition, showing whether its planchet has the same characteristics as a legitimate example. Imagine being able to read out the strains internal to the coin, in enough detail to distinguish an original business strike, a double-struck proof, and a restrike over an original coin. Both of these are probably easier than "printing" a coin at a level of detail sufficient to faithfully reproduce luster.

Things will be very different in 20 years, but the death of coin authentication is still a lot further away than that.