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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Insider, post: 3080889, member: 24314&quot;]tommyc03, posted: &quot;An article in this week&#039;s Numismatic News...is interesting in that it makes mention of how old fakes and counterfeits are returning to the public eye. Old time collections which have been buried for years and resurface as the owners pass away or collections are sold after years in hiding...&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>I appreciate your comments that prove I have two people reading what I write - you and my wife!&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ll share the column here (sorry, no images.&nbsp; You&#039;ll need to subscribe to Numismatic news):&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I think I’ve began an authentication column in the past reminding readers that: “Everything old is new again.”&nbsp; From what I can discover, this statement refers to history repeating itself or what goes around comes around again.&nbsp; Apparently, this is a paraphrased and condensed version of a quote found in the Bible: Ecclesiastes 1:9 “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: <i>and there is no new thing under the sun.</i>”&nbsp; This is often how I, and many professional authenticators must feel at the major Third-Party Grading Services (TPGS) as we examine one of the older counterfeits that we first saw in the 1970’s.&nbsp; Many of these “old friends” are still around waiting to be discovered in old collections or unknowingly traded as genuine in the backroads of our hobby. </p><p><br /></p><p>Professional authenticators at the major grading services see thousands of coins a week.&nbsp; Over time the diagnostics of often seen genuine and counterfeit coins become “burned” into their memory.&nbsp; Let’s take the 1926 Sesquicentennial $2 ½ dollar gold piece as an example.&nbsp; One particular die is seen with a small “lump” (extraneous metal or EM) over the date that is easy to remember.&nbsp; Later a die break is seen across “Liberty’s” face.&nbsp; In the 1970’s, counterfeiters used a genuine coin as this to make a transfer die so every-so-often you will encounter a counterfeit Sesquicentennial coin with this lump.&nbsp; Since this characteristic is found on both counterfeit and genuine coins, it is not a useful diagnostic to rely on for coin authentication. </p><p><br /></p><p>Figure 1 shows part of the reverse of a counterfeit struck with a different obverse die without the lump.&nbsp; The die used to make this fake has been reworked to change its appearance.&nbsp; When long-time authenticators examine this old fake, they find a pattern of tool marks rather than the former “marker” between the “ER” of “America” used to detect this counterfeit decades ago when it as first discovered.&nbsp; While bringing up this old counterfeit, it may be a good time to review some of the other characteristics seen on older fakes that have virtually disappeared from our newer counterfeits.</p><p><br /></p><p>Gradually, as the methods of making false dies has improved, so have the counterfeits.&nbsp; That’s why many of the older defects seen on fakes such as “wormy tool marks” are rarely seen on counterfeits made after 1980.&nbsp; As more and more of the counterfeit “tell-tales” disappear, we may reach an interesting time for coin authentication.&nbsp; Perhaps, a day will come when all the older counterfeits are either destroyed or impounded off the market in teaching sets.&nbsp; Then as more types of counterfeit defects used as diagnostic “markers” disappear, <i>everything new we see, will actually be new under the sun</i>![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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