Bought this on a whim as I know nothing about these but the color and planchet looked pretty good for a coin of this age. Honest wear. Probably overpaid at $12 shipped but what the heck. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1442734144...=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
Looks real, I don’t think anyone would counterfeit this coin Pretty cool, $12 not bad for such a piece of history with King George III
@Matthew Kruse . Yeah, I wasn't sure . It looks really good for $12 !! The year is really bold. Hard to always find like that for those years .
Definitely a contemporary counterfeit, but still interesting and collectable for that. These were massively counterfeited at the time as a hike in Copper prices had made it worthwhile for the fraudsters to do this, despite the risk of being hung, or even worse transported to Australia if you were caught! Check the weight when you have it in hand - a Regal coin should be over 9g. Most of the copies are around 7g. Worth your $12 even as a counterfeit.
Thanks for the reply. What shows up in the pics that makes you sure about the coin being counterfeit? Just curious.
It is mostly to do with the proportions and shape of the bust and of Britannia. I see lots, and there are far more contemporary counterfeits than genuine Regal ones around. Here is my best Regal one for comparison:
I have several authentic and several counterfeit examples of George III coinage and this piece appears to be a contemporary counterfeit. Actually I think the counterfeits are more interesting because the British crown was notoriously negligent in supplying particularly low value coinage. In colonial America coinage was chronically in short supply - which was a factor leading up to the revolution. But in Britain coinage was also scarce, so much so that in Scotland bronze coinage was so scarce that Scots were forced to use Dutch duits and French sols and 17th century Scottish coinage until the mid to late 18th century.
As many have already said, this is most certainly a contemporary counterfeit. That said, it was well worth the $12 you paid for it. I provide a little background for why these pieces came about in one of my NGC custom sets, which you may find enjoyable. If I get a chance this weekend, I will dust off my book and ID the family classification for you. Of course, someone may beat me to it by then.
