My question is, how can one be assured that this is definitely a counterfeit, not an undocumented variety?
I don't know world coinage at all, but both of the above coins are castings. I recently thought of the perfect punishment for counterfeiters . . . Deprive them of food and water until after they have ingested all of their fake coins.
Even the one labeled "original" (in the NGC-?-holder)? I've collected a lot of Norwegian coins; the second one could have fooled me. Help me out, please, with what you are seeing, ToughCOINS. Steve
While I don't see an obviously removed gate, I do see numerous raised pimples on the surface of the coin, which would correspond to lost medium in the casting process.
The puppet Norwegian government (during the German occupation) used iron during the war years. Could that account for what you see as pitting?
Not sure about the first coin, but the second coin is struck. The iron coins struck during WWI and WWII in Norway are notorious for quality issues, such as die cracks, weakness, pimples (from tiny die chips), etc.
There's no varieties. At this late date the dies all came from a master hub. Earlier on, the last digits of the date were added to the die individually, but this practice ended before the 1940's.
Kolyan, preaching to the choir here A link to the other thread where this coin was matched to a cheap modern fake would have been helpful.
Most "gates" are usually found on the edge of a cast. IMO the "pimples" are just brown oxidation on the surface that will brush off unless further treatment is called for. The Crude shape 5 is a good pick-up point. Thanks for the info.
