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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 702, member: 57463&quot;]<b>Ersatz Copies of Replica Evasions</b></p><p><br /></p><p>It gets compllicated.&nbsp; I do not collect coins by date and Mint, so I do not look to copies for &quot;filler.&quot;&nbsp; I personally find copies unsatisfying as fillers.&nbsp; I have a blank space for my 1916-D Mercury and that is the truth of the matter.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mr. Goldsborough&#039;s taxonomy of ancient fakes has grown to cover all of the options I can think of.&nbsp; This came as a result of long (and sometimes painful) discussions on rec.collecting.coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>In terms of other fakes, the Red Book lists &quot;Bungtown Coppers.&quot;&nbsp; These were evasions (fakes) of British copper coins that circulated pretty much by weight in the New World and other places. These are true, numismatic collectibles, a form of money, just not issued by a government.</p><p><br /></p><p>Similarly, in the 1790s, in response to the same need for small change, the &quot;Provincial Tokens&quot; or &quot;Conder Tokens&quot; were issued by taverns.&nbsp; Soon, other people made them, mostly for advertising.&nbsp; John Wilkinson, the iron master issued many and he was so popular (iron bridges, etc.) that fakes of his tokens were struck and circulated.&nbsp; Eventually, some tokens were made just for collectors and never for circulation and at about that time, the whole thing collapsed when the British Mint finally began to get the problem solved (at least temporarily).&nbsp; So, all of those &quot;fake&quot; Conders, the Wilkinsons, etc., are indeed truly proper numismatic items.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I have in the past had some Gallery Mint items just to see in the flesh (so to speak) how the coins looked.&nbsp; Pictures are not as real as the object you can hold in your hand.&nbsp; But I perceived them myself as just that: simulations of the real thing in order to illuminate for me what the real thing really looked like.</p><p><br /></p><p>Other fakes don&#039;t do it for me.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I agree that there is a problem with fakes taking on a life of their own.&nbsp; There are probably more fake 1877 Indians than real ones.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>There was the time that Bill Swoger, a pretty well-known and respectable collector from Michigan, got hold of some dies for 17th century Irish coins (ducats, I think, gold coins) and he struck the copies over Canadian quarters and British sovereigns.&nbsp; He took them to Liberty Coins in Lansing to show off his handiwork.&nbsp; They took the gold coins in back, crushed them in a vice and gave them back.&nbsp; The silver coins -- being in the wrong metal -- were not judged so egregious.&nbsp; Said one employee: &quot;Degrees of wrongitude.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>That&#039;s how I see fakes: you have to know your degrees of wrongitude and stay on the sunny side of the street.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>------------[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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