How did chopmarks validate coins?

I copied this and placed it in my "Coin Tools" folder.
Thanks !

 

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Test cuts were commonly done on silver coins in Southern Italy and Sicily from 1735 to the 1800's. They must have had a lot of fakes during that time period. They would cut deep grooves on the reverse of these silver coins. I don't notice that on Northern Italian coins of that era.

 

For this era, a simple cut was about the best method they had to see if a base metal would show up in the cut.

 

True dat!
Sold this one a couple months ago
And a picture of another I found online

 

Is there any metal showing that is not silver? Make a cut, a chop mark or anything else to damage the coin to the point you can see non silver metal if it’s not real. Why does a Trade Dollar have more than 1 chop mark? Because they didn’t trust the other persons mark.

 

It’s not that I don’t trust you
It’s just that I don’t trust anybody
Rick Harrison.

 

Oohhh so like they make a cut to see if there is silver underneath too and not just a silver coating?

So did gold coins get test cuts too?

 

It’s worth $6,000
But I’m gonna have to sit on it and wait for a buyer..
I’ll give you $300 for it.

Rick Harrison

 

I’ve never seen one but they didn’t circulate overseas.

 

None of the gold coins minted did?

Not even the gold Greek stater and gold Roman aureus?

 

Those deep test cuts are exactly like the ones I've seen on silver coins minted in Naples and Palermo during the 1700's. I'm guessing merchants would do those test cuts.

 

Not sure about the ancients.

 

sorry wasn't paying attention I guess.

 

Ah ok I was just curious after seeing the simple test cuts in the Athenian owl Tetradrachm that I posted above.

Maybe gold was easier to identify legitimacy though since it’s heavier than the other metals in antiquity.

 

Not used in normal commerce as often either.

 

But I read gold coins were usually used for larger purchases like slaves, houses, etc.,

I imagine slaves & houses were sold pretty regularly based on how many slaves there were and how many houses there were.

However while I’m sure that the “normal” average citizen rarely used gold coinage it must have been relatively common among the rich.

If you take a look at some of these donativum (bribes for loyalty made by the Emperor to the soldiers) they are extremely high compared to the average daily pay of 1 denarius.



If you were a soldier would you rather receive 3,750 denarii (roughly 22 lbs of silver) or would you rather receive 150 aureii (about 3 lbs of gold)?

I always assumed the Emperors paid mostly with aureii rather than denarii since they would take up less space and be much lighter

Another example was the “honesta missio” which was a payment to soldiers who had completed their term of services with the legions.

It was 12,000 sesterces or 3,000 denari which would also be much easier to pay with mostly gold aureii and the rest with silver denarii for smaller transactions.



Basically it seems that the average person (at least for soldiers) had a lot more money than people would think today. So it seems likely to me that some of it would be in gold and with so many soldiers that would make gold coins pretty common.


Just from donativums & honesta missio soldiers would receive nearly 20 years. pay on top of their regular pay of 1 denarius per day.

 

Chopmark is pretty much a cheap way to test if the coin is not some plated base metal.

Here is an example of genuine chopmark coin



Here is a counterfeit example (with fake countermark)



Scratches on gold coins did exist especially with gold plated platinum coins which did happen around 1870s.



A lot of the gold plated platinum coins found today are intentionally scratched to expose the underlaying platinum. As of the origins of such coins, I do not know what counterfeiting group did it. These affected mainly Spain but France and GB were affected as well which are much scarcer.

 

But those chopmarks actually have symbols someone can identify.

What about chopmarks like this?




There is no way to know who did it.

 

Why does it matter who did it? If I'm a merchant, I'm not going to assume a familiar chopmark is a sign that its genuine.