Word on the street is that somebody is putting alot of Russian Imperial fakes out there, apparently alot of fingers are pointing at a chinese source, others are looking at E. European sources of these. I've seen a few and most are not convincing, my question is: are there any specific very convincing fakes out there? if so what dates, denominations and mint marks etc. are they mostly seen in? So far i've seen a very bad fake 1834 Ruble, which was easy to spot, and a few other oddballs in some of the 18th c. stuff, I have yet to see anything in the 1860-1917 range, but maybe I have who knows.... Let me know if anybody knows any more about this issue in the hobby. Also, you guys into the earlier stuff, please do watch out, if theyd done a better job to make the 1834 look circulated a bit it possibly could have passed many peoples eyes.
Weight and diameter are usually dead giveaways but some could be Very good and almost impossible to tell !!
yeah, I have thus far had no problem telling fakes, I am just worried that there might be really good ones out there. on specimens with some circulation the weight could be a bit off as well, making it a further issue IF they were good. To be honest though, i'm not too worried, I believe most fakes out there are lousy chinese fakes with low silver content, making them not an issue to spot. Thought id throw it out there though, i've just been hearing rumors of good fakes
If it's a coin and the variety commands a decent price, IMO if it hasn't already been counterfeited by the Chinese, it soon will be.
