Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Insider, post: 2659265, member: 24314&quot;]This is not what I observed during the late 60&#039;s up to the mid-70&#039;s.&nbsp; The counterfeits from Lebanon were not in tolerance.&nbsp; The fineness of the gold alloy they used was so &quot;off&quot; that someone familiar with gold could tell the coin was a counterfeit just by the color of the coin.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>At that time the fakes produced in Lebanon were so crude and &quot;fatty&quot; that a few &quot;Ex-Perts&quot; of the time were falsely teaching that the coins were cast when in fact they were struck on the same presses (at least at one facility that was visited by an ANA officer) used at the U.S. Mints.&nbsp; The counterfeiters had no idea of the proper way to anneal their dies or the correct tonnage to use.&nbsp; That&#039;s why the coins looked cast.</p><p><br /></p><p>Interesting and funny (?) story that was written about the first time a nationally recognized and well-regarded numismatic authenticator who helped start ANACS visited the service (1972) to meet the rookie authenticator.&nbsp; The &quot;Ex-Pert&quot; sat the kid down at the scope and removed a coin folder from his pocket.&nbsp; Inside the folder were gold coins.&nbsp; As the old man removed the first 2X2 from the folder the kid said it was counterfeit.&nbsp; When asked why,(he had not even touched the 2X2 which never got closer than a foot away), the kid said the color was bad.&nbsp; The old man started to pull the next 2X2 from the folder and the kid said that&#039;s counterfeit too!&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The &quot;Mints&quot; in Lebanon were shut down by war in the country.&nbsp; It was not until the late 1970&#039;s that the counterfeiters started to get the alloy of their gold coins correct.&nbsp; By then, weight, color, and specific gravity testing was of no real use to detect the fakes.&nbsp; The quality of their dies had also improved and that&#039;s when counterfeit gold began to get deceptive.&nbsp; At this time, one authenticator/instructor was teaching that the days of the hand lens were dead.&nbsp; In spite of his opinion, there are many professional numismatists who still use a hand lens to detect fakes and they seem to be very good at it![/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