20 Piastres 1916 - Egypt

Thanks for the grade, I noticed too the leaves...

 

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I want to tell you that recently I discovered that my 20 Piastres was a fake coin

The edge was very weird,without straight lettering,also it had die cracks which was not the orginal press die cracks,later I knew that it was faked in the 70's during the lebanese civil war by a craftman,engraver : George which was a greek-lebanese.
The guy also faked a large number of American morgan dollars,even common dates! Egyptian FAROUK & Fouad crowns,American flowwing hair dollars, LA FAYETTE memorial coins ,early swiss 5 fr....Palestinian silver and 20 MILS...

What's wicked about Lebanon,that there are tons of fake coins that are sold in the market,And always the amateurs are buying them,there are some dealers that pay more than silver value for fake coins!! Because of the demand,The demand was by Amateurs.who check the rarity of the coin on the internet and see the high prices on the internet or catalogues and pay money for these coins.

Even me!! Sometimes I fooled by these fake coins,and by buying them I'm learning the differences of an authenthic and fake coins.Sometimes I lose money,but I learn new stuff.
Unfortunatly,the government doesn't care on this topic,and some money hungry dealers are destroying this hobby.

George was one of them,there were plenty who also faked rare coins and send to swiss banks to sell them in the 80's...Lebanon is very well known as a source of fake coin as China..You never see La Fayette at the Heritage Auctions or on Ebay,I see plenty of them in Beirut at the dealers The sell it for 40$ to 50$,they also put in a sealed naylon bags, to make u believe that it's authenthic. Sometimes fake coins are sold for couple hundred dollars...Sometimes it's very difficult for me to compare them as long as they are made as the same weight/size/u know the orginal copy...but they usually have a matt lustre,some of them they polish,other...the harshly clean by acide,so make u believe that it's an old one and very well circulated...
This is for Modern coins...you have also a part of Islamic/medieval and Ancients!

I wish we had a company like ANACS/NGC or PCGS who can grade and certificate our coins here..also ban the fake coins...

so,this coin I previously posted a photo of it,it was just a piece of a silver...not a really rare coin in VF condition...

It's good that I only paid 25$ for it not more...

 

Aww, that's a real shame. Sorry to hear.
Like you said... good thing you didn't spend too much on it.