Fake silver coins. Buyers beware

[metaldetectingforum.com]

Yeah,makes a guy just good with going and digging them out of the ground when you can. Nothing is sacred anymore,I don't know if anything ever was...

I would imagine that silver coins would be easy to fake, especially the weight....gold coins not so much because of the uniqueness of the weight verses volume.

Ozzie, gold coins are usually faked differently. Adding or subtracting a mint mark or changing a date to a rarer coun, hence making money on rarity value difference.

Rod-PA Wrote:
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> Ozzie, gold coins are usually faked differently.
> Adding or subtracting a mint mark or changing a
> date to a rarer coun, hence making money on rarity
> value difference.


Rod, doesn't it become apparent once the gold coin is weighed? as gold is a third times heaver than lead. In other words, harder to match the weight of gold in a exact volume size, like a specific coin.

What they would do is take an 1850 1 dollar gold coin and add a C mint mark to it. Real gold coin, but if the buyer doesn't notice the fraudulent mint mark, pays 5 times the value for the coin. Weight would be about perfect. Some fakes are easy to spot, but many fakes just looking at pictures or not the real pictures....bummer

I have a friend that is a very experienced coin/precious metals dealer and he got fooled by an excellent fake 1916 D mercury dime.

Only under the high magnification of a lab microscope could he see the lifting on the edge of the applied mint mark, it was that good!

WOW! Thanks tnsharpshooter for the buyer beware. - Jim

If gold does ever get to thousands per ounce, counterfeit gold will become a huge problem. Filling gold coins, bars, etc. with Tungsten is going to require some quick tests for the market to not have big problems imo. And I think quick tests will require expensive technology.
And actually, I wonder what percentage of gold already sold is not tungsten filled. I know nothing about counterfeit silver.

Albert

Rod-PA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What they would do is take an 1850 1 dollar gold
> coin and add a C mint mark to it. Real gold coin,
> but if the buyer doesn't notice the fraudulent
> mint mark, pays 5 times the value for the coin.
> Weight would be about perfect. Some fakes are
> easy to spot, but many fakes just looking at
> pictures or not the real pictures....bummer

Ha. I see what you are saying....making a key date from a highly minted less valued coin. Real coin, partial fake face.

The Bust dollar, many seated liberty dollars and many of the trade dollars are/were the most "faked" coins on earth starting way back when they were still being minted

that's why "chop marking" became common practice (you see it on Trade dollars a lot) = to ensure that the coin/s were real and not fake due to the counterfeits coming out of china during the 19th century (1800s)
(most of these coins are cast fakes)

V nickels were ran thru a gold gilt process to pass off as $5 gold pieces for many yrs at/around the turn of the century (1900)

1916 D mercs and the 1901 S Barber Quarter are high up on the list of fakes too = they shave off the mintmark on a common coin and apply it to the 1916 merc or 1901 barber 1/4 to increase the value 500 fold

lots of the Indian gold coins are fake as is $1 and $3 princess gold and again = california fractional gold

lots of others out there too!

Wow thanks for the info.....years ago found two barber quarters in one hole and dealer found one was a faker so I guess they have been doing it for years as found in real old area and probably lost at same time.

Fake silver coins are easy to detect with a neodymium magnet. Look up diamagnetic property of silver.
Detecting fake collectible coins is WAY above my pay grade and I leave it alone. I buy only on bullion value.

sorry for the edit, but there hasn't been a spellchecker yet that can keep up wif me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/2016 12:07AM by Champ Ferguson.