What coins are very difficult or impossible to counterfeit well?

I may be paranoid, but the new generation of counterfeits scare the beeJeesus out of me. What coins ae not readily counterfeited?

I'm thinking mint state type coins in general, and proofs in particular.

Jay Cline once told me that SLQs are very difficult to counterfeit due to the complex design.

What say thee?

 

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I don't think it matters how difficult it is, if there is a popular key date for a mega series it will be counterfeited. If it is a series that few collect or a series where the average value was low such as ASE's there is little reason to counterfeit it.

 

I've never heard of bust halves being counterfeited.

 

They are out there - as well as SQL.

Speedy

 

I haven't seen many Susan B. Anthony Dollar counterfeits... maybe those are really hard to counterfeit???

 

I believe these are widely counterfeited in Ecuador where they are used as currency. Folks have even reported counterfeit Ike's, as well as any number of low cost foreign coins. Think about it this way, if it costs 25 cents to make the copy, and they can churn them out, that's still plenty of profit.

As for Bust halves, they were even counterfeited back when they were new. Contemporary counterfeits are a sub-specialty. What helps Busties and early copper is that so many collectors pay attention to die varieties, that a convincing fake that will get by an expert requires a lot more work than many other series. The downside is that it requires the collector to study up on all the die varieties.

Best do like you suggested in your other thread, buy coins with a known provenance, that can be traced. Maybe you will still end up with a fake once in a while, but the odds seem a lot higher. The other absolutely safe route to go, is to only buy new products direct from the U. S. Mint or other world mints. At least, you'll know it is real product.

 

Where there is a will there is a way:



Doesn't seem worthy of counterfeiting, but somebody thought so.

This however is worthy of counterfeiting to the Colombian criminals that are alleged to be making them for sale into Ecuador where they circulate as coinage:



This indeed is one of the Latin American counterfeits. Notice how the edges are munched up to make it look like it has seen circulation. What is off on this, the eyes in Sacagawea are off, so is the baby. The edge is the wrong colour.

 

Know your dealer.

See here a long-running story on Coins.About.Com. When you view the slides, note the SLQs and dies for SLQs.

Cloudsweeper99 must have been joking and we just missed the humor. Everyone knows that fake Bust Halves are common, both as contemporary counterfeits and as commodities for the collector markets.

I do have to question GDJMSP, though. While I agree that in times gone by, counterfeiters made coins to spend, today, the output of fakes far exceeds anything imagined before. I just finished reading Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson. William Chaloner was arguably the most successful counterfeiter circa 1700 and his lifetime output would be matched in a month by the Chinese factory shown in Coins.About -- and that is just one such source.

The plastic encapsulations of reputable graders have been faked.

I believe that the collector markets are totally polluted. Trust is a supreme value. I would never buy any numismatic collectible from someone whom I did not know first hand, face to face, from local conventions and shows. They would have to be reputable within that community, ANA members, etc., able at once to know the difference and morally (and commercially) obligated to stand behind their attributions.

 

I would say early proofs. There is less information on these, making it a bit more difficult for China to get it right.

 

I've seen counterfeit coins of almost every denomination, except Jefferson nickels. Not saying they're not out there, but I'd have to imagine the effort and materials would be more expensive than the original coins themselves.
Guy~

 

I've seen lead Jefferson nickels out there - other than that, I don't think I've seen any made out of other types of metal.

Speedy

 

Actually the Henning counterfeits of the 1944-5 nickels are some of the very most common counterfeit non-rare coins out there. There are estimates that he made between 100K-250K of them. They did indeed circulate and I know people that got them in circulation back in the 1950's. Henning never made a killing on them, and his episode may have had more to do with a mental condition that a profit seeking venture.

 

AHH, Yes the Jefferson Nickel. I wonder if anyone would try to counterfeit a 1964D Jefferson Nickel. From what is in change it sure would appear that the Mint sure couldn't have made that many. :goofer:
With the China syndrome of faking our monitary system lately I don't think there is any coin they couldn't make as well or possibly better than ours.

 

What about the Henning Nickels? Probably one of the more famous counterfeits out there.

 

true - I wasn't thinking of those as counterfeits, but as altered...but that was wrong

Speedy

 

If I remember correctly there was a movie made of a guy that counterfeited $1 bills. He didn't do it to make money, just to live. He would only spend them for what he needed to survive and since he got away with it for about 20 years, I think he just got a suspended sentence. It was supposed to be a movie based on a true story. One funny thing they mentioned was the bills were so bad that Washinton was mispelled.

 

You would think people in this country would counterfeit foreign money and try to exchange them for US currency, in hopes that banks wouldn't know enough about every country's money to spot a fake. Hopefully I didn't just give people a bad idea, but I can't believe some criminals haven't thought of this at some time.
Guy~

 

Pun intended?

Like a kick in the shin?

 

Haven't seen a 64D, but I have seen a 1974.