Contemporary Counterfeits

Just as well the reverses are different eh?

 

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Here's a contemporary fake of a Friedrich Wilhelm II Prussian Thaler dated 1795, and which probably saw active service during Napoleonic years. There are minor traces of silvering left on the coin but as you can see, the base metal (copper) core of the coin is very evident. No longer a threat, but i think this one would have been very convincing in its youth. it is however about three grams light of the mark.

 

Ian,that is a nice fake Prussian Thaler.It is so easy to forge this coin by taking a genuine piece & making a mould,then casting a copper copy & then electroplating it in silver.Look at how crudely struck a genuine late 18th Century Prussian Thaler really is.

Aidan.

 

Mostly all of the contemporary counterfeits of 1600-1900 coinages I have encountered (including this one) have been struck examples, not cast. Most often they are struck in copper or brass, then treated with a varying degree of thickness of silver (ranging from a light silver wash through to `quality' silver plating). Any mark on this one you might be interpeting as a `pock' (normally associated with casting) is actually either part of the coins design or a circulation hit.

Most cast fakes that i've come across have been fairly modern fakes of ancient coins with. There have been a few exceptions.....usually spanish 8R's... or dutch pieces.

The Prussians appear to have maximised the use of their coin dies at the expense of strike quality at times. However, I wouldn't quite say that the coinage in question was particularly crudely struck in relation to other coinage of the time.

 

Here's one for our US cent /`penny' collectors. It looks to the eye as being a 1914D cent. Inspection with an eyeglass however will reveal to the trained eye that it is actually an altered date. the `1' in the `14' having originally been a `4'. That is, the coin started off in life as a 1944D and someone has quite expertly altered the date to make this common date coin look like it is the much scarcer 1914D. The image below is pretty close to what you'd see through a x3 lens. Would you have noticed if it was on sale at a coin fare?

 

The "19 14' date caught my eye. I like to think that if I collected US cents I would have looked at it with a loupe before buying.

 

That spacing pretty much does give it away doesn't it?.......

The `workmanship' is much more noticeable with a x10 loupe but to the naked eye it is indeterminable.

 

Here's a contemporary fake of a Vickie Indian silver Rupee, complete with incused `c' mint mark for Calcutta mint. The silvering on it is nigh on intact, but thin, giving it a `golden toned' appearance in the flesh. The scan makes it look a lot more `obvious' than it is to the naked eye.

 

Forged 10 Shekel and 5 Shekel coins have been produced in the cash strapped Palestinian areas. It is quite ironic that the Palestinians use Israeli Coins and Notes. In Essence, they recognize the state of Israel.



Here is an article from the Bank of Israel:
29.6.2006

The Bank of Israel Warning of Counterfeit NIS 5 Coins
The Bank calls on the public to be vigilant in noting the identifying signs, and instructs the banks to examine coins at time of deposit

In the past few days the Bank of Israel has found counterfeit NIS 5 coins in circulation, showing a mint date of תשס"ה. The counterfeit coins have been minted on a different metal to the genuine coins and have other flaws. It may be difficult to identify the counterfeit coins with the naked eye, but there are tell-tale signs:
The inner part of the counterfeit coin is made of a pink metal and scratching with a sharp object will reveal this pink color.
The word ישראל is missing from the emblem of the State of Israel on the obverse side of the coin, and this can be seen with a magnifying glass.
On a genuine NIS 5 coin, the square at the base of the capital of the column on the obverse side has double lines on each side; the counterfeit coin does not have double lines.

​

The Bank of Israel calls on the public to watch out for these signs when paying with or receiving NIS 5 coins dated תשס"ה. The public should also be aware that the presence of such counterfeit coins in the market could cause problems in commerce, as traders and providers of services may not agree to accept or give NIS 5 coins dated תשס"ה.
The Bank of Israel has instructed the banks to check all coins when cash is deposited with them. As required by law, any counterfeit coins that are discovered will be handed to the police.
We stress that a counterfeit coin has no value and cannot be used as a means of exchange.

You can find some counterfeit Israeli coins for sale at the boston of the following page...
http://isracoins.com/P28.htm

 

Actually if you collect US cents this one is dead easy to spot as fake from the picture provided. The D is too far from lincoln's chest. Having said that, mintmark and date alteration is a huge problem with US coins. Someone just posted a picture of a fake 1914-D cent here a few days ago.

 

Here's a new Cap'n'Ray contemporary copy I bought at a small show in Paris, Ontario, last weekend:



Close-up of the reverse doubling, which is due to the method that was used to make fakes in the 1830-40 period. (rocker press with a heated planchet, which required numerous strikes to impress the image, since this process didn't produce enough pressure)




I also picked-up am 1821 Zacatecas 8 Reales, which is either counterfeit, or made from re-worked dies. I'll have to examine it closely tonight.

~Roman

 

Hmmm. The `ease' thing is terribly relative to your expertise (or lack of in the case of many collectors). Yes, i'd agree that it is relatively easy to spot IF (big IF) you know the diagnostics for a real 1914D (as in having read the books).

After all, this example is a real `D' cent. Just not a real 1914D. How many cent collectors have seen a real 1914D I wonder?


Ian

 

Here's a turn up for the books. This coin was sold to me as a contemporary fake of a Lubeck gulden of 32 schillings. It weighed in at the proper weight however, and seemed to be the proper dimensions. Originally it looked like a copper core with a lttle bit of silvering. As you can see from the `curation' work i've done on it, it now looks more like the silver coin that it actually is.

The staining on the coin is likely due to fire damage which has caused some of the copper content in the silver to leach to the surface (or something along these lines. In any event it is actually the real McCoy. Unfortunately it isn't a particularly scarce coin, but still it is unusual to be expecting a fake and it turning out to be real.....

 

Neat coin and a great story, Ian

 

Have to agree I an that is a great looking coin even if it is a forgery LOL

De Orc :thumb:

 

I think he said the coin is real

~Roman

 

The politics of what country's currency should be used by a political entity within another country is an appropriate subject for the Politics, Religion and World Events forum and not the coin forums.

 

I suppose if enough collectors see fake 1914-D cents and they keep circulating through trading, someday they will become 'real'. The same can be said for many things of history. There was a thread here last year about a fake 8 reale, and the argument kept bringing in other examples for comparison, which were also immediately pegged as fakes, etc, it became confusing to know what was what in the end.

Thanks for showing so many examples of fakes in this thread, although it does not comfort me much to see such a panoply of coins being conterfeited.

 

It is indeed a real coin. I think DeOrc meant that it looks nice whether real or not.

Ian