Coins - Fakes and Forgeries

An Experimental Investigation of Counterfeit Coins
and Forgeries
Experimentálna štúdia numizmatických falzifikátov a novorazieb
Jaromír Audy
Abstract
Recent advances in commercial exploitation of modern
manufacturing technologies based on rapid prototyping,
rapid tooling, as well as surface coating have allowed an
introduction of a wide variety of counterfeit coins and
forgeries into numismatic sectors. In the present study, an
investigation was made into some of such fakes. It involved
material analyses, optical microscopy and hardness measurements. The results showed that the most popular world
wide silver coins (from the late 19th and the early 20th century) are being routinely and ruthlessly copied. The cheep
copies manufactured in, and distributed from, Asian countries such as Hong Kong and Singapore, are struck or cast
from base metals and coated, more or less successfully, with
a tiny layer of silver. In this paper, also some attention is
given to fake sovereigns as they are other popular types of
numismatic items offered to unsuspected coin collectors or
potential ‘investors‘. The copies produced in Middle East
(particularly in Lebanon) are usually high quality gold coins
of different nations. They are produced there legally for
those who prefer to keep their savings in gold rather than in
banknotes or banks. Many of these fake sovereigns are
mostly die cast. Interestingly, they do consist of some
manufacturing errors as well as features not correct from a
numismatic point of view according which they can be
detected as “imitation” coins. Despite this, they still can
fool a collector or a dealer into paying a premium price,
greater than the bullion cost, for rarer coins. Finally, in this
paper special mention is made to gold plated and TiN
coated fake ‘gold‘ coins that can nowadays quite often be
purchased in the open market or through web sites. It is
believed that this paper may provide some extra knowledge
to collectors and may prevent some of them from buying
numismatic fakes.
Keywords: fake coins, silver, gold, base metals, manufacturing technologies, surface coating.
Abstrakt
Súčasné výhody v komerčnom využívaní moderných
technológií založených na rapid prototypoch, rapid nástrojoch a taktiež povrchového povlakovania umožnilo zavedenie veľkého množstva rôznych druhov falošných mincí do
numizmatického odvetvia. V súčasnej štúdii, vyšetrovanie
bolo urobené na niektorých takýchto falzifikátoch. Toto zahrňovalo materiálové analýzy, optickú mikroskopiu a tvrdostné merania. Výsledky ukázali, že najpopulárnejšie svetové strieborné mince (z prelomu 19-tého a 20-tého storočia) sú automaticky a drzo kopírované. Lacné kópie vyrábané a distribuované z ázijských krajín ako z Hong Kongu a
Singaporu, sú razené alebo liate zo základných kovov, a povlakované viac alebo menej úspešne tenkou vrstvou striebra. V tomto článku je určitá pozornosť venovaná falošným
zlatým minciam, nakoľko tieto patria medzi ďalšie populárne typy numizmatických objektov ponúkaných nič zlé neo-
čakávajúcim zberateľom alebo potenciálnym „investorom“.
Kópie vyrábané na Strednom východe (hlavne v Libanone)
sú obvykle vysokokvalitné zlaté mince rôznych krajín. Tieto
sú tam vyrábané legálne pre takých, čo chcú držať svoje
úspory v zlate radšej ako v bankovkách alebo v bankách.
Mnoho takýchto falošných zlatých mincí je liatych strojovo
pod tlakom do foriem. Vyznačujú sa určitými špecifickými
výrobnými chybami a taktiež znakmi, ktoré nie sú správne
z numizmatickej perspektívy a podľa toho môžu byť rozoznateľné ako ”imitačné” mince. Napriek tomu stále dokážu
oklamať zberateľov alebo obchodníkov tak, že zaplatia najvyššiu katalógovú cenu, radšej než váhu zlata, za netradičné
mince. Nakoniec, v tomto článku je urobená špeciálna
zmienka s ohľadom na zlatom potiahnuté a TiN povlakované falošné „zlaté“‘ mince, ktoré v súčasnej dobe dosť často
môžu byť kúpené na trhoch alebo cez web-site. Verím, že
tento článok poskytne ďalšie informácie pre zberateľov
a zabráni kúpe a šíreniu numizmatických falzifikátov.
Kľúčové slová: falošné mince, striebro, zlato, základné
kovy, výrobné technológie, povrchové povlaky.
1 Introduction
Over the past few years a high number of different
quality, struck and/or cast, copies of world wide coins have
been produced in Asian countries. Particularly in Hong
Kong Island, the majority of “antique” shops tend to offer
dubious articles at low cost.
The “antique” shop pictured in Figure 1 is situated on
Hollywood Road and it is a true Aladdin’s cave overfilled
with forgeries and fakes of different kind. An arrow with
a star, far right in Figure 1(a), points to a basket containing
a large number of old coins mixed with counterfeits and
forgeries, see details in Figure 1(b).
One needs to be quite skilled and careful when looking
for “treasure” in this minefield of fakes. It is because the
open market seems to target all numismatic fields by
offering counterfeit coins of different nations, see examples
in the following Figure 2.
(a)
45
(a)
(b)
Fig. 1 One of the many ‘antique‘ shops in centre of the
Hong Kong City offering for sale a large number of dubious
antiques including fake coins; Photo taken in July 2007.
Obr. 1 Jeden z mnohých „starožitných“ obchodov v centre
Hong Kongu ponúkajúci na predaj veľké množstvo
pochybných starožitností a falošných mincí;
fotené v júli 2007.
(b)
(c)
Fig. 3 Some examples of counterfeit coins imitating rare
Chinese and Spanish coins which circulated as legal tender
in the 20th and the 19th century; from Arab street
in Singapore 2002
Obr. 3 Ukážky falzifikátov mincí zobrazujúcich vzácne
čínske a španielske mince, ktoré cirkulovali ako legálne
platidlo v 20-tom a 19-tom storočí; z Arabskej ulice
v Singapore 2002
The coins pictured in Figure 4 are imitations of the
silver ones introduced by Japanese during invasion of
Korea.
Fig. 2 Photograph showing a number of fakes, namely, a
five korona coin - Ferencz Jozef (Franz Josef), A, a taler Maria Theresa of Austria, B, and other different Chinese
coins from late Qing (CH’ING) Dynasty (Manchu, 1890 1911). Photographed in July 2005 at Harbour City
(Antique shop next to Ocean Centre) in Hong Kong
Obr. 2 Fotografia ukazujúca množstvo falzifikátov,
menovite päť korunu – Františka Jozefa (Ferencz Jožku),
A, a toliar – Márie Terézie Rakúskej, B, a taktiež iných
rôznych čínskych mincí z Ching Dynastie (Manchu, 18901911). Fotené v júli 2005 v Harbour Meste (Antik obchod
v blízkosti Oceán Centra) v Hong Kongu.
Figure 3 and 4 show some coins offered for sale at Arab
Street in Singapore, and Seoul in South Korea, respectively. The coins pictured in Figure 3 are fakes. The one
pictured in Figure 3(a) imitates a 26.8g silver dollar (Yuan)
from 1912 showing a bust of Hung-hsien in military
uniform with plumed hat facing (cover) and winged dragon
(reverse) designed by Luigi Glorgi. According to source [1:
p. 153] this type of coin would command $100, $400, $700,
$1000 and $1500 in very good (VG), fine (F), very fine
(VF), extremely fine (EF), and un-circulated (UNC) conditions, respectively. Other two coins are imitations of Spanish American silver dollars (Reales) that if genuine would
sell for several hundred dollars in fine and very fine
conditions and several thousands of dollars in un-circulated
conditions [2: p. 313].
46
Fig. 4 Imitations of silver coins which circulated as legal
tender in Korea during occupation by Japan; from Seoul –
South Korea, 2002
Obr. 4 Napodobeniny strieborných mincí, ktoré cirkulovali
ako legálne platidlo v Kórei počas Japonskej okupácie;
zo Seolu – Južnej Kórei, 2002.
Some examples of low quality copies of ‘silver like’
coins made from soft - low carbon - steel materials coated
with a tiny layer of silver are shown in Figure 5. The two
coins show distinctive marks of corrosion over large surface
area. The third coin is an imitation of a silver Hungarian 5
korona from Ferencz Jozef era in early 20th century. It is in
better conditions from a corrosion point of view, however,
all three coins are very poorly struck as evident from their
planchet and design features.
Fig. 5 Poorly struck copies of “silver” coins showing
distinctive marks of corrosion
Obr. 5 Slabo razené kópie “strieborných” mincí
s výraznými znakmi korózie
Perhaps one of the reasons why more people are being
now keen to get involved in coin collecting is that the high
quality coins showed reasonably steady price increase over
past decades. It is because positive economic condition
changes created more potential investors wanting particular
coins. The increases in demand were followed with increases in prices for low mintage and top quality (UNC and
EF) coins. It needs to be however mentioned that it requires
certain knowledge and skills when buying coins as an
investment. It is easy to get burnt e.g. by buying an overgraded coin (tragedy) or purchasing a complete forgery
(plain disaster). The difference between UNC and EF conditions in rare coins can sometimes be in the three / four figure bracket, while majority of forged coins similar to those
pictured earlier in this paper, if detected, are worth almost
nothing when tried to sell them. From the above it is evident
that novice collectors are quite easy prey when falling for
cheap buy as a good investment.
It needs to be noted that increasing level of inflation all
over the world, and devaluation of paper currencies in many
European countries created a type of ‘collectors‘ interested
in basic silver and gold coins because of their value in metal
weight. Those senior collectors were badly burned by silver
and gold crush some twenty years ago.
However, the gold coins always seemed to keep their
basic price at reasonable levels. Majority of them can still
be purchased for a bullion price plus a small dealer’s profit
of around $5 to $10. It should also be mentioned that an
ounce of gold, often used as a market indicator in determining the cost (bullion price) of common gold coins have had
an excellent price increases since 2006 ranging between
30% and 58% which is very acceptable when looking at a
level of inflation and the current economy e.g. in Australia.
Figure 6 shows some Australian gold nuggets weighing
16 grams which (in January 2008 according to the gold/
dollar market level) were worth about $530. Figure 7 shows
four ordinary European gold coins from the late 19th and the
early 20th of century. The three coins (from 1982, 1910 and
1915) are the Austrian ten coronas. They have approximately 2.5g each of actual gold content. Their full weight of
90% gold is 3.3875g each. The Russian 5 rouble coin weights 4.3013g of 90% gold which is 3.87g of actual gold
content. These four coins, shown as an example, can be
purchased from about $480 to about $560. They are the late
European gold coins, and they are very popular between
Australian collectors.
Recent advances in manufacturing industry, namely,
rapid prototyping and rapid tooling allowed quick production of a large number of dies for forging and injection
moulding. Both processes are very suitable for production
of high quality gold counterfeit coins. In fact the real gold
material used in production may sometimes be better than
that used in official original issues as it is generally known
e.g. in a case of legal imitations made in Middle East
(mostly Lebanon). In many cases such fakes are recognisable by some errors the forgers made when copying their
dies. One such example is shown in Figure 8. It shows two
quite ordinary gold Australian sovereigns - both made of 22
carat gold, 7.988g. However the top one is a counterfeit. It
is evident from the symbols, R.I, placed behind the George
V head at the cover, see Figure 8(a), which are absent in a
real gold sovereign, see Figure 8(c). Irregular shape of the
‘R.I‘ symbol indicates that the coin was die cast rather then
die strike. There seem to be no differences in reverse which
shows the image of St. George in both cases.
Fig. 6 Fine Australian gold nuggets
Obr. 6 Pravé austrálske zlaté nugety
Fig. 7 An example of gold coins – Ferencz Jozef (1915
restrike, 1892 and 1910 originals), and Russian Tsar
Nikolai (1897 – original) – popular also between Australian
coin collectors
Obr. 7 Ukážka populárnych zlatých mincí - Ferenca Jozefa
(1915 novorazba, 1892 a 1910 originál) a ruského cára
Nikolaja (1897 - originál) – obľúbených aj medzi
Austrálskymi zberateľmi
(a)
(b)
47
missing the streamers on the back of St. George’s helmet,
see Figure 9 (a- fake) and (b-original), below.
(c)
(d)
Fig. 8 Gold sovereigns (7.988g i.e. 0.2354oz) - fake one
(top), genuine one (bottom), picturing George V (face)
and St. George (reverse)
Obr. 8 Zlaté mince (7.988g i.e. 0.2354oz) – falzifikát
(hore), originál (dole), zobrazujúce George V (na čelnej
strane) a Svätého Georga (na zadnej strane)
When considering the cost of ordinary gold coins
including the real gold counterfeit sovereigns from a bullion
point of view, and comparing their price with different “rare
date” coins made of basic materials, it looks reasonable convincing for many recent collectors – those who are looking
for some “weight” for their investments – to purchase the
gold sovereigns produced during a period of the late 19th
and early 20th of century. In such cases no particular harm is
done to collectors (investors) when buying real gold copies
instead of original coins for their gold purity and weight.
For example, both coins pictured in Figure 8 are worth the
similar amount of money – each about $200 which includes
the cost of gold with a marginal interest for a dealer. However, there is a completely different story when one is
interested in purchasing mid-19th century gold coins. The
purchasing cost is usually in four/five figure dollar bracket
per a certain coin in UC or EF conditions. It is because
around and below this date there are many high priced –
low mintage - sovereigns. For example, majority of early
top grade half sovereigns (in UC, EF and even VF conditions) from Victorian Era, namely (a) Fist Type Hair Style
(1855-1856; Sydney Mint); (b) Second Type Hair Style
(1857-1870; Sydney mint), (c) Young Head Type (18711887; Shield Reverse); Jubilee Head Type (1887-1983,
Shield Reverse) and Veiled Head Type (1983-1901; St.
George Reverse) were struck with very low mintages e.g.
21,000 pieces (in 1855); 62,000 pieces (in 1865); 11,000
pieces (in 1885) with the rest ranging from about 40,000 to
80,000 except very few slightly higher mintages - around
300,000 to 400,000 pieces (in 1857, 1858, 1859, 1963,
1872, 1893, 1900). In contrast, one sovereigns from Victorian‘s era although two times heavier in gold (9.988g) than
the half Victorian sovereigns (3.994g) were minted in much
larger amounts ranging from about 1 millions to about 3
millions of pieces (each year) except 499,000 pieces struck
in 1857. Therefore, they are still quite widely available to
collectors for reasonable good price. On Australian market
some forged half sovereigns, one sovereigns as well as
modern gold coins are relatively quite common. For example, rude forgeries of modern Australian $200 gold coins
(fake 1981 in un-circulated conditions) made from gold
plated aluminium were reported by McDonnald [2, 1991:
60]. He suggested that if “in appropriate folder the coin can
be detected from its thickness and lightness“. Some earlier
Australian sovereigns can be recognised from differences
(mostly historical errors made by forgers not paying
attention when cutting their dies) on cover and/or reverse
e.g. some of the forged young Victorian sovereigns are
48
Fig. 9 Fake (a) and real (b) gold one sovereigns
distinguished from the absence/presence of streamer*
attached to the helmet of St. George (reverse)
Obr. 9 Falzifikát (a) a skutočná (b) zlatá minca
rozoznateľné podľa stuhy* na helme svätého
Georga (reverz)
Bearing in mind the above overview, some observations on recent counterfeits are presented and analysed in
the experimental sections, 2 to 4, below. The driving force
for writing this paper was to warn the coin collectors and
investors about counterfeits and forgeries distributed not
only to Australia, but also widely sold in open world wide
market and through the web-sites.
2 Experimental Details
2.1 Experimental Coins
Last year, coin collectors in a small town in Western
Australia were trilled to find a large number of Chinese
ancient coins for sale early morning at one Saturday’s local
flea market. Up to about two hundred coins differing in
their theme as well as design, and ranging from the middle
and the late Qing (CH’ING) Dynasty (1890-1911), were
bought (at a price of $5 per coin), in a matter of minutes, in
different quantities, by six coin collectors and ‘treasure
hunters‘. The sellers belonged to a family of Chinese origin,
and later opened an Asian – Orient - shop in the town, see
Figure 10.
Fig. 10 A shop in a small Western Australian town where
the Ancient Chinese counterfeit coins were offered for sale
Obr. 10 Obchod v malom západoaustrálskom meste,
kde napodobeniny čínskych starých mincí boli ponúkané
na predaj
In that shop, amongst a wide variety of ‘antique‘ items
offered for sale, there were also ‘ancient Chinese coins‘ –
sixty of them in an album, and other scattered randomly in
boxes. The asking price was again $5 per coin. Some of
these coins, see Figure 11, were purchased for non-destructive – optical, and destructive – material examination.
The visual inspection of the above coins indicated that
they were very poorly coated with silver like layers. Their
design and size tried to imitate real “Imperial era” coins as
well as some early “20th century” Chinese silver coins. It
needs to be noted that during 1920s and 1930s a large
amount of silver was taken out of China because of high
price of silver. This was endangering Chinese national currency in such a bad way that in 1935, according to the
source [3] “the circulation of Silver dollar coins was prohibited and private ownership of silver was banned”. The
“large” silver dollar coins weighed about ~26.9g (i.e.
0.7785oz) and they were usually produced from 0.9 (900)
silver, while lower domination coins i.e. 10 cents, 20 cents,
25 cents and 50 cents quality had a silver content ranging
from 0.8 (80%; 800) to 0.86 (86%; 860).
(A) 24.41g
(B) 26.78g
(C) 27.44g
2.2 Experimental Methods
All the coins were individually weighed using a Type
GS–50x0.01g electronic scale. Then, the hardness tests, see
Figure 12 below, were conducted on several specimens (F,
G, L and N) selected randomly from the group. These hardness tests involved also silver items for comparison purposes. The measurements were conducted using Wilson Rockwell hardness tester. The testing conditions used were RC
(150kgf/diamond indenter) for the fake coins, and RB (60
kgf/1/16‘‘ ball indenter) for the fake coins, silver coins as
well as the real experimental silver items.
(D) 26.49g
(E) 26.74g
(F) 26.64g
(G) 26.92g
(H) 26.87g
(I) 27.28g
(J) 27.27
(K) 26.85
(L) 27.01g
Fig. 12 Photograph showing experimental hardness tests
Obr. 12 Fotografia ukazujúca experimentálne
tvrdostné merania
Metallographic analyses of coins involved cutting the
specimens, polishing and etching in 2% nital prior conducting observations using an optical microscope, see Figure 13.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 13 Photograph showing two specimens cut for
metallographic analysis - forged coin (a);
silver coin (b)
Obr. 13 Fotografia ukazujúca dve vzorky rezané pre
metalografickú analýzu - falošná minca (a);
strieborná minca (b).
3 Results and Discussion
3.1 Non-destructive Tests
(M) 26.61g
(N) 26.35g
(O) 26.67g
(P) 27.28g
Fig. 11 Photographs showing imitations of some
Chinese coins analysed in this study
Obr. 11 Fotografie ukazujúce kópie niektorých čínskych
mincí analyzovaných v tejto štúdii
Consequently, it was decided to carry out some destructive tests on the above specimens. Some silver struck items
such as 50% Ag florin, and sterling silver (92.5%Ag) spoons were chosen for comparison purposes.
Referring to data in Figure 11, the mass ranged from
minimum of 26.35g for Specimen N to maximum of 27.44g
for Specimen C. On average, the mass of individual coins
pictured in Fig 11 was 26.73g and the standard deviation (of
0.69 in this group) was very small. This indicated that these
counterfeits are probably the work from one workshop where the forger/(s) tried to strike their coins from similar
blanks. He/she certainly showed some knowledge in coins
because the fakes were intended to fit to 26.5g of 0.9 (900;
Ag) dollars, see Figure 14 (a - e).
49
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 15 Photographs showing the fake coins stuck
on a magnet, and one original silver coin
(far right) not reacting at magnetic field
Obr. 15 Fotografia ukazujúca falošné mince pritiahnuté
k magnetom a jednu striebornú mincu
(v pozadí vpravo) nereagujúcu na magnetické pole
(d)
Tab. 1 Experimental hardness data
Tab. 1 Experimentálne tvrdostné údaje
60kgf/1/16‘‘
Specimens
ball
96.55 (average)
Fake coins
2.58 (st dev)
(e)
Fig. 14 Photographs showing an original (a and d) and
forgeries (b, c and e) of a 26.5g (0.9 silver) dollar (Yuan) –
Li Yuan-hung Founding of Republic (date: 1912)
Obr. 14 Fotografia ukazujúca originál (a, d) a falzifikáty
(b, c, e) 26.5g (900 striebro) doláru (Yuan) - Li Yuan-hung,
zakladateľ Republiky (datované 1912)
The measurements conducted on the coins in Figure 14
showed that the fakes had their mass around 22.55g and
22.59g, while the slightly worn original weighed 26.03g.
This particular type of coins would command a price up to
about $200 in EF condition.
Simple testes conducted using a magnet showed that the
forgeries investigated in these experiments were made of
ferrous materials. All of them, except the silver ones reacted
to magnetic field, see Figure 15.
3.2 Hardness Data
The results from hardness measurements are shown in
Table 1.
50
150kgf/diamond
indenter
17.65 (average)
2.34 (st dev)
87.64 (average)
NA
50% Ag coin
2.29 (st dev)
73.71 (average)
NA
90% Ag coin
2.29 (st dev)
68.75 (average)
NA
Stg (92.5%Ag) spoon
5.97 (st dev)
80.33 (average)
Stg (92.5% Ag) knife
NA
1.53 (st dev)
From Table 1 it is evident that the fake coins had the
hardness of 17.65RC which is similar to the low carbon
steels [4]. The trend observed in the hardness data was one
where the values decreased from the highest ones to the
lowest ones in the following order – fake coins made of
ferrous material, the 50% Ag coin, and the 90% Ag coin.
The sterling silver items – the spoon and the knife – had
their hardness data similar to those measured on the surface
of the high percentage Ag coin.
3.3 Metallographic Analysis
Figure 16 shows micrographs of a fake Chinese coin in
polished and un-etched conditions (a) and in polished and
etched conditions (b). Figure 16 (a) shows some porosity
and non-metallic inclusions evenly scattered through the
base material. Also, a tiny continuous layer of silver coating
is clearly visible on the coin surface. Figure 16 (b) shows
the silver coating in more detail, and also reveals internal
microstructure of base material created mostly from ferrite.
The deformed grains at the top of the coin confirm that they
were made by striking.
Figure 17 shows micrographs of a real 0.500 fine Ag
coin (50% Ag, 40%Cu, 5% Zn and Ni balance), in polished
and un-etched conditions (a) and in polished and etched
conditions (b). Small amount of porosity is visible in Figure
17 (a). The grains are evenly deformed through the whole
structure of the coin 17 (a - b).
Fig. 19 A tiny layer of TiN deposited onto the surface
of a counterfeit coin made of a base metal
Obr. 19 Tenká vrstva TiN nanesená na povrchu falošnej
mince urobenej zo základného kovu
4 Conclusions
(a)
(b)
Fig. 16 Photographs showing the microstructure of a fake
coin in un-etched (a), and etched (b) conditions.
Obr. 16 Fotografia ukazujúca mikroštruktúru falošnej
mince v neleptanom (a), a leptanom (b) stave.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 17 Photographs showing the microstructure of a 0.500
fine Ag coin in un-etched (a), and etched (b) conditions
Obr. 17 Fotografia ukazujúca mikroštruktúru originálnej
0.500 Ag mince v neleptanom (a) a leptanom (b) stave
Finally, Figure 18 shows a crude reproduction of a Russian gold rubble featuring Tsar Nikolai. Such copies are
now being offered through e-bay for US$20+$6.65 for shipping cost from USA.
Fig. 18 Reproduction of Russian “gold” rubble offered for
sale through e-bay and web-sites [5]
Obr. 18 ReprodukciaRruského “zlatého” rubľa ponúkaného
na predaj cez e-bay and web-sites [5]
Russian gold rubbles, Austrian and Hungarian gold
florins as well as other European gold coins are popular
items from both collectors and forgers perspectives. Recent
advances in coating technology allow coating a wide range
of basic steel materials to give them golden like appearance.
For example a physical vapour deposition can produce such
coating via deposition of TiN (Titanium nitride) layer, see
Figure 19. The process is quite simple and there is a number
of coating machines widely available.
The main conclusions to be drawn from this study can
be summarised as follows:
• Current market offers a number of fake coins from
different nations. The fakes imitate “ordinary” nominations
made of noble materials mostly silver and gold, and majority of “rare” date coins irrespective of their materials. The
counterfeiters are mostly focussing on producing and distributing of cheep fake coins, similar to those pictured in
Figure 11. They are making a large profit by passing a large
amount of fakes at low cost ($5 per coin) to unsuspected
buyers. In contrast, the forgers are focussing on reproducing
rare date coins and making a fortune with sale of a single
coin.
• Both types of fake coins, counterfeits and forgeries, are
quite successful in deceiving collectors and investors. It is
because the numismatic field has a steadily growing trend
with more people interesting in this hobby. There are usually novice collectors or investors with a limited knowledge
in coins and history that falls into a trap of forgers and buy
cheap counterfeits. However, there are also cases when the
skilled collectors and dealers are conned by a clever forgery.
• The results in this study showed that a large number of
Chinese Imperial coins are counterfeits made of low carbon
steel coated with a tin layer of silver. These fakes can probably foul a person with vague knowledge in coins when
bearing in mind the fact that by law, in 1935, the Chinese
government banned ownership of silver dollars. These
counterfeits can be detected from differences in their weight
compared to the real coins. Those made of ferrous materials
are sensitive to magnetic field. Majority of these counterfeits are poorly coated. In some cases the basic material can
be seen in areas where the coating was worn off. The coins
may also show some signs of corrosion.
• The real gold counterfeits (of Middle East origin) can be
detected from historical errors on the cover or reverse,
missing parts in details, uneven appearance and irregularities in features due to the casting cooling. The cast counterfeits have non uniform and irregular spacing in reedings
which is usually filled on manually by the forger. The
reading edge in genuine struck coins is produced mechaniccally during their manufacture.
• The crude forgeries of gold coins are made from base
materials coated with gold or a TiN - gold like in appearance – layers. These counterfeits can be detected from their
weight, thickness, and lightness.
Acknowledgement
The author wish to express his deep gratitude to Coin
Dealers in Perth from Trevors Coins Shop M112 Carillon
City Arcade, Murray Street, Perth, WA 6000, (phone
number: 93215362) for proof reading of this article and
specific comments to gold sovereigns.
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