Identifying Fake Coins

Because of the value associated with rare coins there have always been people willing to try and extort money from genuine collectors. For this reason it is quite commonplace to see fake coins enter the marketplace. Not all are considered forgeries but it is very unlikely that they would have any value associated with them. Identifying a coin as a fake can be easy to do, but some are forged so well that it can be very difficult indeed to recognize the fact. If you believe you have a fake coin or you simply want to check that a coin you are interested in is real then there are certain things you should look for.

The cast counterfeit

A cast counterfeit is not normally created as a forgery to profit from a fraudulent sale. They are normally cast as souvenirs, keepsakes or for advertising purposes. Because they are not created to be identical to the original these are the most crude of fake coins and are usually easily identifiable as being a fake. They are usually created from two casts, one of the obverse and one the reverse. The two halves are then sealed together. This method creates a seam around the edge of the coin that is usually easy to spot by the naked eye.

Electrotypes

Electrotypes are another form of copying coins that is not necessarily done as fraudulent activity. Indeed many museums use this technique to good effect. If a museum has a rare and valuable coin they may not want to show the original because of security issues. The electrotype copy is a brilliant copy that produces designs that are almost identical to the original. Electrolyte copying will only copy one side of a coin but this produces the perfect opportunity for a museum to be able to show both sides of a single coin.

A coin is pressed into a soft substance, thus creating a negative. This impression is then electroplated creating a positive shell. The problem arose when forgers used this technique on both sides of a coin and fused them together with a hard metal center. Again, though, electrotype copies are easy to recognize. Tapping them with a pen or another coin will give a thud sound instead of the ringing noise that a genuine coin produces. There are also likely to be seams around the edge of the coins.

Transfer dies

The most popular form of creating forgeries to make a profit, the forger creates a working die that they can use to cast the coin they want. Because this method is very similar to the one used when the original coins were pressed it can be incredibly difficult to spot a forgery made using transfer dies. However, you can tell. There are usually bag marks on the coin that are created in defects from the die. Some fraudsters make the mistake of trying to remove the error by carving small parts of the die. This makes the forgery even easier to recognize.

These are some of the more common types of forgery that you may find. The most common way to spot a forgery is by finding the seam marks that are around the edges of the coin. Failing that, modern tool marks are often visible that appear either as scratches or raised areas on the design. Always try to compare a coin to a picture of the original to ensure that everything looks right and check for obvious physical problems with the coin. Lightly tapping the coin with a pen should produce a ringing noise because of the solid piece of metal, some forgeries will only produce a thud.