Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ian, post: 115250, member: 283&quot;]Why so shocked?</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;When counterfeiters will go as far as counterfeiting an Australian penny of no significant value, or modern Egyptian coins with a value less than 1 euro cent each it should comne as no surprise to learn that nigh on every `valuable&#039; coin / collectable has been (at one point or another) the subject of the counterfeiters arts.</p><p><br /></p><p>I can assure you that the gold Russian 5 roubles is no exception.</p><p><br /></p><p>Although I do not have one in my counterfeit collection, I have indeed seen more than one in the past few years. Typically light in colour and light in weight too.</p><p><br /></p><p>Lebanon was `the&#039;&nbsp; centre of the universe at one stage for forged gold coins, specifically British gold sovereigns (yes Aidan.....even though you might not have seen any forged Brit sov&#039;s. either there are thousands of them around). Italy has produced some of the best forgeries around too but mainly of silver crowns. Countries like Bulgaria are showing us that they too have produced some excellent artists (which have been put to bad use) . The Chinese are still in an embryonic state when it comes to forgeries. Their errors are (so far) pretty blatant, but there is no doubt that given time their forgeries of collector coins will be something to contend with. It won&#039;t be long before a set of scales and callipers for measuring coin thickness will become key tools in every coin collectors armoury.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is difficult at the best of times to determine a coins bona fide&#039;s from a picture. The single best method of determination is by having a coin in the hand, feeling the texture and the weight. Of course if you don&#039;t know what the coin should feel like in the first place, that would be a pretty poor method. A set of scales will just tell you that the coin has been made of the right materials (presuming the size of the coin is correct). Many collectable coins HAVE been forged in the correct materials.....including sovereigns.&nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>On a point of irony, long before it was appreciated as being a precious metal, platinum used to be a material of choice for forgeries. Typically used (along with some light gold plating) to forge french 20fr pieces. These pieces would tip the balance when a coin was being checked for gold. The irony of course being that in platinum alone these forgeries are now worth roughly twice the value of the coins they imitate. As collector pieces however, I have seen them sell for over $1,000 a piece. Ironic indeed.</p><p><br /></p><p>To me, the original coin in this thread still looks like a fake. Add to that that some dealer who presumably makes his money by selling collector coins decided it was only worth putting into a 25c tray (?)...well to me that adds to the odds against it being genuine. OK the odds might be `evens&#039; on the stupidity of a dealer. I&#039;d probably buy it too for 25c but in the absence of being able to examine it up close and confirm its bona fides I wouldn&#039;t pay any more. Maybe the original poster got lucky though...as I keep saying, a quick check on the weighing maching should help tell.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ian[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in