Beware of fakes made by 3-d printers

You can order the software to make these fakes here. These are just a few:

 

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Do you have any example photos of the product? My impression was that 3D printing is still a long way from being able to produce a convincing coin reproduction.

 

I suspected the company was foreign, but they are in New Orleans. Interesting other offerings.

 

But these ain't metals right, just plastic?!

 

Is it possible to 3D print gold and silver? You would need molten gold and silver as I understand it.

 

So, these are just models, descriptions of the shape of each coin. Is there any reason to think anyone has the ability to make a convincing 3D print from one of them? Are models with this number of polygons good enough, assuming you have a 3D printer with sufficiently fine resolution?

 

You can 3D print metals, even high-melting ones like tungsten -- but you don't get a surface that would convince anyone. Even if you printed a fake coin and then tried to polish it or artificially wear/corrode it, I think you'd have texture problems. This isn't my field, though, so I may be wrong.

 

which makes me wonder how people over 2000 years ago made such high quality coins only with their hands, but we couldn't convincingly replicate what they've done with all the technologies? (while proof coinage is another different area)

 

Back in the early 90’s, we were making 3-D molds from steel and copper “filings”. CAD/CAM software ran lasers on 3-D axis and we could scinter/form the filings into any 3-D shapes. We chose to produce prototypes for concepts, but mainly negative imaged them into making molds for plastic injection molded parts. Generally took 8-12 hours to produce. We called them prototype molds, could be as large as 60 cm x 60 cm x 60 cm. We could injection mold up to around 50,000 parts from them, so they were damn good “prototype” molds, with very clear detail and surfaces to our specs. We literally could sell the products from the molds onto the consumer market, without any concern to quality. They were that good. We also could injection mold powdered metals to make metal items such as knife handles, etc.

We did this all in North America. However, the machinery, albeit at that time, carried a $6Million price tag, and was available worldwide.

We were able to amortize the capital costs through creating injection molds that made everyday product. Then, we also had the added benefit of creating concept prototypes within a 12 hour cycle from finalizing CAD/CAM drawings.

With our being able to produce items of this quality and detail 30 years ago, I am not surprised that you could produce quality items today, use artificial weather chambers to age product, and create fake anything.

We were saying “The Future is NOW”, 30 years ago.

 

From scrolling through the photos I am pretty sure the OP photos are not representative of the final product. I think they are showing the coins that the process is meant to make copies of. If you scroll down you will see pictures of 3D printed coins that I imagine are much closer to what you will actually get and they would not fool any serious or amateur collectors.

I don’t think 3D printing would be the most effective way to make a fake coin with today’s technology. I do think 3D printing is amazing however.

Edit to add: I wonder if some of those coin images were taken from auction sites and used without permission...

 

"Mint OFFERS for 2030 a roll of 20 1 oz. 2030 ASE with your face or motto on obverse and absorption patch of Covid 29-30 on the reverse. $25,000. ( Free Shipping except to the forbidden zones of the US)" Hurry , Hurry.

 

These probably look closer to an out of the printer result:


Not great, but with sufficient wear and patina they could be convincing enough

 

About this convincing:

 

Yep. And I'll bet the folks who sold the systems to you called it "rapid prototyping".

I popped over to the Wikipedia article on 3D printing, and was a bit surprised to see that the first patent for 3D printing of metal objects was granted in 1971.

As for the "models" on the page OP linked -- I don't think we need to worry about anyone using them to "3D print coins". But I would guess a motivated criminal could use them to drive a CAD/CAM setup to make dies -- more likely with a computer-controlled mill rather than an additive system. But, really, the only new thing here is someone putting the models out on the Internet for purchase. I don't think they're likely to get rich off this, especially when a criminal only needs to buy the model once, if that.

 

There are a few medallions and coins I wouldn't mind an obvious 3d printed fake from. One example is the commemorative medal aureus multiple showing Constantius' arrival at the gate of Londinium. Never in a million years will I get a real one, and it would be a nice thing to have and enjoy.

 

Agreed. The dies and molds are the real concern. Yes, ours was a rapid prototype machine, which we turned into a rapid TOOLING machine and created saleable product ! Paid for the machine during downtime between rapid prototyping.

 

...Weeeell, except that A. Pivs one really smells to high heaven.

 

Just, You Nailed It.

 

Does anyone know the finest resolution of any 3D printed object. Standard printers fail at .05mm but a coin would have to be 100 times that to be deceptive.

 

I have had this fear that someone is going to get a scanning and 3d print combo that will be able to recreate an ancient coin and all its flaws...probably almost there if not quite there yet. Best way of course is to 3d print the dies and strike them so you get all the striking signs and randomness in the shape. I hate people who seek to make money dishonestly. Even a drug dealer, if he is a good one, gives you what you paid for. But this is just human nature. We are capable of great good, great Ill and all that is in between.