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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;-jeffB, post: 1615353, member: 27832&quot;]Look at it this way. Inkjet printers started out about where 3D printers are today -- they worked, but the copies they produced were pretty crude. They quickly got MUCH better, to the point where they&#039;re now the go-to technology for photo printing, producing images with better resolution and accuracy than old-fashioned photo processes.</p><p><br /></p><p>But have they killed the market for fine artwork? Are they producing indistinguishable copies of old currency? No, and they won&#039;t. They may make copies that are hard to distinguish with a casual glance, but there are too many characteristics that they can&#039;t replicate.</p><p><br /></p><p>Coins are different, in a number of ways. But by the time 3D-printing technology has advanced enough to make &quot;nearly indistinguishable&quot; copies, <i>diagnostic</i> technology will have advanced as well. Imagine being able to get a fine-grained readout of a coin&#039;s metallic (and even isotopic) composition, showing whether its planchet has the same characteristics as a legitimate example. Imagine being able to read out the strains internal to the coin, in enough detail to distinguish an original business strike, a double-struck proof, and a restrike over an original coin. Both of these are probably <i>easier</i> than &quot;printing&quot; a coin at a level of detail sufficient to faithfully reproduce luster.</p><p><br /></p><p>Things will be very different in 20 years, but the death of coin authentication is still a lot further away than that.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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