I'm looking for help as I start to look for my first golden coin. Ideally I would like a guinea. Spade or other. I wonder how to spot fakes, I've trawled the internet and have come to the conclusion you can't particularly test it other than going by magnetic, right size, right weight and also pinging it. Well I looked at this one before that someone local had just got in to sell.. It seemed to ping fine, the size is correct, the weight is 8.15g where as the royal mint indicated 8.35 and that is what put me off along with a mysterious ring mark around George's head. I presume by the wear on his hair though that must be the reason for the ever so slight weight decrease. I don't know if maybe the mark was caused by harsh cleaning in the past or by bag marks maybe. I look forward to opinions from those in the know Thanks in advance, Mark.
Consider buying your first and subsequent coins from a dealer who will guarantee their being genuine. Perhaps, in time, you will feel more comfortable making the call yourself but there is really nothing quite like handling a few thousand coins to develop this level of comfort. Will you pay more? Yes. How many golden fakes will you buy before it would have been cheaper to take my advice?
hold the coin by it's edge. that's a nice early date. are you truly happy with this coin ??? that ring around the head really bothers me. if I bought a numismatic gold coin. I would have to know that it was authentic for sure... so it would be slabbed by PCGS or NGC. or I would have to really know the dealer to buy it raw.
Yes the coin does look to have been harshly cleaned. And the weight being off by 2 tenths of a gram, no, that could not be attributable to wear. A coin with the amount of wear that coin has would not lose any appreciable weight. So the weight being light, would definitely be reason for me to return the coin. As for the ring around the bust, it's possible that could have been caused by some kind of an old style tab holder.
If the circular ring is rough then it was definitely not from an old tab holder, but from some other form of damage. It could even be from a rolling or counting machine. For these coins some years ago, were common enough that it was not unusual for low grade examples to be sold by the roll. Of course that is only a possibility of what may have caused the damage. Regardless, the presence of the ring, and the fact that is rough, means that the coin is definitely damaged and thus loses most of it's numismatic value.
Instead of continuing on with your nonsense why not take a second and read post 2; it will help you to acknowledge it
Instead of being edited why don't you do one ? I have taken everything on board that I've been told. I just want to know what that circle is its not my coin anyway if you read I passed on it.
