At a recent coin club meeting, a gentleman brought in two fake $20 gold pieces and a fake $5 Indian. He is a jeweler and after he was done passing them around, he explained that they were all three made of real gold, but they were not genuine coins. You could tell the weight was a little different than the real ones he brought with him so we could compare. He said he frequently comes across fakes from people who bought them under the assumption that they were real. He tries to make their day by buying them for melt value, which usually works. I just thought it was kind of cool. Also, I have a fake 1889 P Morgan that belonged to a family friend. When I explained it to her, she asked how I could tell. I took out one of my circulated Morgans and showed her how the weight was different, the wear was uneven, and even the reeded edge looked like it was simply carved by hand. Then, I did the flip test where I flipped mine so you could hear the ring in mid-air. Then, I flipped hers so she could hear the flat *clank* it gave. I'm guessing it was some kind of iron or alloy because of the corrosion. It just makes me sad to think that there are so many fakes out there. What's worse is that they're getting harder to spot. Most are still pretty obvious. I would like to take a class on them. By the way, what is the term where someone takes and original coin and casts a die from it? The result is usually a very weak or uneven strike of a fake. I'm sure that's what happened with the 1889 Morgan, but I couldn't think of the term and neither could anyone else at the meeting. It's driving me nuts.
Wonderful story ..only in the midwest ...lol. I'm not sure what term you are looking for but a person to makes phoney money (coin or paper) is a counterfeiter.
Mods....feel free to nuke this post if need be but.... With the technology today, ecspecially in metal works, why arent more counterfeiter's using laser scanning to copy coins, then using cutting tools you see with high end cutom tire rim companies to etch new coins onto silver rounds.....seems as if that would be the most effective means of counterfeitign if the equipment were had... Imagine a mass production of 1895P Morgans in 66 or better condition this way...... that is frightening
Sounds like you are talking about some expensive machinery so the answer to your question is probably that it wouldn't be cost effective. After all, counterfeiters are in business to make a profit!
Hi Tjenkins! Good call to use the flip test to see if the coin "rings true"! It was the most common simple test and the phrase "rings true" continues in our popular language with very few people even knowing what it means anymore. (since no modern coins ring true!). I've done something of a study on the midwestern counterfeiting schemes of the 19th century. It turns out that there are any number of alleged sites where such activities took place, and I just happen to know of one which is right here in the Ozark hills near my home. I first heard of "Counterfeit Cave" while teaching natural science to 5th graders at an historic site in Madison County Arkansas. (I've put the whole story on a webpage at http://www.shirepost.com/ONSC.html so I won't have to copy and paste a lot of text) The short of it is that zinc is a silvery white metal that is found in near-surface deposits in limestone beds across the central US from Arkansas and Missouri to Tenessee and Kentucky. Zinc is easily smelted from the ore, and though it is a component of brass, it was not discovered as a separate metal until the late 1700s. In the early 1800s zinc was referred to in this area as "Ozark Silver" and was being commonly used to counterfeit coins. I believe that several of the "legendary" coins of US history, (the Yoachum Dollar, the Sprinkle Dollar, and the Bear Hollow Dollar for instance) are in fact cases in which counterfeiters were faking either US or Mexican silver coins. Zinc melts easily at a low temperature, and is very soft when warm (warm being like 250 to 300 degrees F). It would be a relatively simple thing to clone molds either by casting or hobbing soft metal or even clay against an authentic coin, and then using the molds to cast copies. The copies would be poor quality of course, not expected to fool a collecor, but might pass at the local store or saloon if the proprietor was busy. Here in NW Arkansas there are many zinc deposits that are not rich enough to mine for zinc (which is cheap) but which would yield quite enough metal to use for a counterfeiting operation where the metal could pass as silver. As a coinmaker I purchase silver regularly, and I have even had a bar of metal offered to me, stamped .999 silver, which turned out to be zinc! So the practice continues to this day!. By the way, I'm always interested in obtaining examples of period base-metal fakes so that I can document the precise alloy that was being used. Silver dissolves easily in molten Zinc, and will increase its hardness and 'ring' properties.
I have recently seen many fakes of 18th century italian coins (mostly scarce $200+ types) in Italy......and they just wern't there before...a bit worrying...
C&C machines still leave VERY evident marks from the cutting. For the coin to look close to appropriate, it would have to be buffed by hand for quite some time. This is why custom wheels are so expensive. The buffing is the most labor intensive aspect of the creation. It can be done, but I'm not sure a crook would want to put that much time, effort, and money into the operation. A quick casting method has less of an initial start-up cost and they could destroy the evidence, in a pinch.
You may be talking about electrotyping, which is the method used by many museums to make (properly marked) replicas of coins and other metal objects in their collections. Scroll down a way on this webpage for a description of this method.
It is difficult to reproduce the luster effect that flow lines give off without actually striking the coin. A lasered copy would lack that attribute. Maybe someday, but my understanding is that it is cost-prohibitive, too.
