Hi, My uncle showed me some of his British Sovereign coins. However, one of his coins – minted in 1925 under the reign of George V – is awkwardly weird: It has a very thick rim. Look here, the first and second coins are of Edward VII and Victoria. But the third coin is of George V and it has a THICK RIM: And here is the suspected coin: The weight is 8,01 grams. My uncle says he bought it from a reputable place and insists it is not fake, and that the thick rim was just a novelty in design and not a sign of fake. Can anyone with deep knowledge tell me whether it is fake or not? Thank you so much.
Well it should weigh 7.9881g. If anything, you would expect it to be a tiny bit lighter not heavier. Although it's not off by much, the scale that weighed it at 8.01 may not be exact, and it could have been a slightly heavier planchet. What are the dates, on the other ones?
Take care in reaching your conclusion. While I'm a US coin guy and don't know foreign, the coin's surfaces don't look right to me, and the numerals and letters look a little on the plump side. It could be a counterfeit deliberately minted to greater thickness to reach the specified weight with a lighter alloy. You might compare the thickness of the coins across the flat fields on both sides with micrometers to see if the volume is really close to being the same.
South African Mint gold sovereign, I wouldn't worry about a thick edge as that could be from anything. The difference in weight isn't that much, not all scales are accurate anyways. All that said, the initials on the reverse are wrong, the SA is under the horses foot and there should be a BP where your coin shows an SA. Here's a pic on what it should look like, something is wrong with yours!
This page here claims that 1925 with a thick rim is actually a restrike?!: "Official Restrikes One of the most unusual facts about 1925 sovereigns is that in 1949, 1950 and 1951, the Royal Mint produced sovereigns, but instead of preparing new dies with George VI's head, and with the correct date, they lazily re-issued George V sovereigns dated 1925. Prior to this, 1925 London Mint sovereigns were quite scarce, especially in mint condition, suddenly they were again available. We deplore this kind of laziness from the Royal Mint, which does nothing to inspire confidence among collectors and investors that it will not repeat the same behaviour again. We can clearly recall that in the 1960's, we would often receive large quantities of gold sovereigns, all dated 1925 and all from the London Mint. We sometimes had as many as 500 pieces! However, we believe that the restrikes can be distinguished from the originals by the more pronounced rim around the edge of the coin..." From: https://goldsovereigns.co.uk/1925sovereign.html