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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;taxisteve929, post: 1300868, member: 34222&quot;]Hi again, and I definitely have followed the counterfeit people for a few years. Ran my own group for collectors of contemporary counterfeit world coins before taking a hiatus. Although I have a dozen or so bust halves, and of course the book, my biggest interest is in pre-US coinage. During better times, I had well over 1,000 counterfeit George III British and Irish halfpence, and had them categorized, and was heavily involved with a sub colonial coins group of from 20-30 others specializing in organizing these into &quot;families&quot; based on several factors. A very dedicated group!! Unfortunately, due to personal matters, I left numismatics for a while and am just now getting my interest back. I am happy to say, that although many of my coins are gone, I&#039;ve managed to hold on to what I consider my most important numismatic related items...my colonial coins library. Between 75 and 100 books and plenty of newsletters and catalogs. The fun has always been in the research for me, and I promised myself that no matter what, I would never sell my books, but rather, in the end, donate them to my club to use in the lending library and whatever is not needed could be sold at auction. Managed to wear out a few of those plastic mats wheeling the desk chair back and forth to the book shelves. One thing I would like to say about counterfeits. If you find any and are certain they are of the time of circulation...you will find some well executed, and some that look like a child made them. The crudest designs tend to bring the most interest when selling. I&#039;m sure some people here use some of the online buying/selling services, and if you ever come across a Spanish coin described as &quot;Falsa de epoca&quot;, it is being sold as a contemporary counterfeit. Please be aware that many people selling know that contemporary counterfeit coins sell at a good premium, and often will try to sell a modern Chinese fake as a contemporary counterfeit. I studied these heavily for years, and can spot one easily, but in the first few months, made many mistakes. Nothing can take the place of seeing and handling a lot of these to be able to recognize them, and the first step to collecting counterfeits, is logically, to learn the genuine pieces. Once you learn to spot a genuine, you will know what isn&#039;t, and from there, you will figure out whether it is modern or older. With colonial coins, the modern fakes generally have perfectly round planchets. But as I said, they are easy to spot.....only if you&#039;ve seen and handled many over a long period of time. Looking at your user name of Conder101, I&#039;m sure you agree. I love Conder tokens, but know too little about them to even begin to build a collection. Of course, when I&#039;m at a show, and I see one I like, I might buy it if I have the money. But I&#039;m at the mercy of the seller, because I don&#039;t know the rarities and values. On the other hand, if I like it, and the seller says $100, and I buy it, to me it was worth the $100. (of course I&#039;ll be kicking myself when I find out later that better examples can be had for $25, but.....it goes with my overpaid for coins...which we probably all have a few, but if we educate ourselves, with time, the bad buys become less and less, and the good deals increase) </p><p><br /></p><p>I rambled a bit, and when I get back, will do a little more reading and less posting. Nice to see what others enjoy. Thanks again!! Steve[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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