Hello, I'm new to this forum. I have got a Meiji Era 1 Yen silver coin purchased on a Taiwan Flea market. The coin is non-magnetic and has a weight of 26.6g. I guess it might be a fake because there are so many around. Just want to make sure. Thanks, Frank
I'm not doubting you but does that not seem like circulation wear? (cool my first interaction with Daniel Carr )
Year 8 is a very rare year if I remember correctly. Quite certain this is the key date of this series. This is dated 1875. Details are wrong and underweight. This is still a very easy counterfeit to tell. The recent super counterfeits are actually so scary - I've decided not to spend any more of my money because it's that bad.
Yes, 明治八年 (1875) has the lowest mintage and by far the highest price of the extremely awesome Meiji Dragon series. The JNDA lists prices for this piece at 800,000円 to 5,500,000円 or, in today's exchange rate, approximately $6,800 to $47,000. Since you paid only $8 for it, that says quite a lot on its own. Judging by the pictures you sent it is not a coin that I would have purchased (though I'm no authentication expert), but for $8 I may have picked it up just for fun. I'm glad that you didn't pay very much for it in any case.
I'm sorry to say that I'm heading in the same direction. Given the current terrifying environment, I can't imagine making a huge investment in coins, regardless of how confident I feel about my ability to spot fakes (many of the new counterfeits fool experts). I'm now buying far far less and only at non-risky prices. This situation doesn't bode well for the hobby in general. It's very, very sad.
Yes, over the past few years I've read various articles in CoinAge, Coin World, on the internet and elsewhere that discuss counterfeits that even experts didn't detect. Another interesting, or terrifying, read is "Numismatic Forgery" by Charles Larson. It discusses in some detail how many fakes are made. This line from the preface says it all: "If you consider yourself to be a serious collector, investor or dealer and the contents of this book don't frighten you, you have ice water in your veins." Counterfeiting has the potential to completely destroy this hobby for a lot of people, and it may already be well on its way. So be careful out there.
here is a interesting article about china's counterfeit coin industry. http://coins.about.com/od/worldcoins/ss/Making-Counterfeit-US-Coins.htm unbelievable...
