Gold Counterfeits

I have a few gold coins i have discussed in previous threads that my LCS said were counterfeits. I finally got around to taking some pics. This is the best I can do since I only have a cell phone camera. I remember specifically he stated my $20 and my $1 was fake. I can't remember if he said the $5 or the $2.50 was the other one. Below are the pics. Thoughts?

 

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Here's a few that he thought were ok. Do you?

 

They all look perfect to me.

 

They all look to be high quality counterfeits. Did he actually test any of them?

 

No, he louped them. This has been over a year ago when he looked at them. He didn't have the "gold testing machine" at that time, but he does now (I don't know what it's called). His shop is about 45 minutes away and I don't get out there very often. I will take them back the next time I go.

 

If he has a gold spectrometer I'd make time to go over there b/c they specify the percentage of gold content if there is any. Either testing method should suffice though. I would find out, many fakes were made of real gold. Normally not as much as usual but still, people buy fakes too.

 

>The $20 is a definite fake. "LIBERTY" on the headdress is not placed properly.

>The $1 appears to be fake. The neck vee points to a different point on the rim.

>On the $2-1/2, what appears to be a remnant of a rim through the lettering on the perimeter of the reverse looks questionable to me.

>I don't notice anything unusual on the $5.

NOTE: It is possible that your LCS assumed that ALL were fake just because the $20 & $1 were obvious.

Chris

 

There are 12 coins in the Capital Plastics set, and he picked out 3 as counterfeit.

 

Oh! Okay! Then, to me, the $5 looks real and the others fake, but I'm not an expert on gold. I believe that Bill Jones on the NGC forums is pretty good in that respect.

Chris

 

That stinks man. Hopefully you can at least recoup some gold content?

 

I didn't buy these. I inherited them. My grandfather collected them in the 60's and 70's. He died in 1981 and I got them 3 years ago when I started collecting. I want to scrap the gold from the fakes and buy a riding lawnmower.

 

That's right. I remember the thread a couple weeks ago. I'm sure your grandfather enjoyed them regardless, darn counterfeiters. Oh and I forgot to mention that the 1898 date looked skewed on the double eagle but maybe it looks like that normally (not a collector of these). Good luck on getting something outta them.

 

Geez, how much can a riding lawnmower cost? Don't forget how quickly it will depreciate. I'd keep the real gold (9 coins?) and find some other way to buy the mower.

Chris

 

I am going going to scrap the 3 fakes and keep the rest. I want to buy a nice, used mower that already depreciated a lot and used the leftover money to buy more coins.

 

Provided that the 3 fakes are real gold? More than likely, not.

Chris

 

I think they are. They are pretty heavy like they are real gold. I read that in the seventies there were a lot of fakes coming out of the Middle East that were actually made of a little bit purer gold than what we used but they were able to easily recoup their money by selling them as genuine coins.

 

The fakes are almost certainly real gold.

 

Let us know if the fakes are gold!

 

I am writing a book on counterfeits. If that $1 is a fake I like to include it in my newbook. The color is off but will do SEM/EDS and XRF testing. Some fakes as in Spain's Isabel II's have platinum. So if the weight is equivalent to regal there is a good chance it could be a Au/Pt mix.

John Lorenzo
Numismatist
United States