That can involve having a policy of only buying from reputable dealers, who will stand behind their product and guarantee its authenticity. To an experienced observer, every coin is a face, even a fake coin. They also take the time to learn about fake coins, so that they can identify the subtle characteristics that identify dies known to have been used by fakers. While some fakes are really well executed, some are clumsy enough that you should be able to catch them.Ĭollectors know that a cast coin has a funny look, that unusual coins can be the result of homemade dies. Once you have the knowledge, observation is the next step. What can I say, take a tip from the pros. Truth is, most dealers tell me their most valuable asset is not their inventory, but their library. In an age of quick fulfilment it is easy to assume that third-party services are flawless, or just to take in what is told to us, rather than invest time and money in learning. In recent years that approach has lost popularity. They also knew that it helped identify the difference between a rare coin and a scarce coin, and the difference between a really nice AU and a genuine MS. Old time collectors knew that being able to tell the real thing from a fake meant knowing the details. In other words, your best course of action is to try not to be a victim.įor the collector, that means a three-pronged approach: knowledge, observation, and market savvy.įor years, the best advice given to new collectors it to buy the book before your buy the coin. You won’t get reimbursed, since having the police buy counterfeits at face value would only prove that crime does pay, so the collector loses. You can attempt to pass it off as authentic, but that’s both immoral and illegal you can hang on to it, but it’s illegal to own counterfeits and unless tungsten goes way up in value you’re never going to get your money back, or you can turn it in to the authorities, which is the legal thing to do. If you end up with a counterfeit item, you really don’t have a lot of viable options. Anyone who follows the business knows that sophisticated fakes have been around for a long time, and enforcement, while it must be attempted, will never be 100 per cent effective. The result is a fake that is incredibly difficult to spot. The manufacturers, in this case, use tungsten, with thicker than usual gold plating, and very closely match the size of the original item. That is the case with the recently reported Chinese fake gold coins and bars. Recently, as shown elsewhere in this issue, the fakers become so brazen as to essentially put up a web page saying “buy these fakes so you can make money selling them as real.”
It’s just that for most of our history, these types of crooks have preferred to remain out of scrutiny. Back in the renaissance, when the first collectors were filling the first coin cabinets, I suspect that some early tradesmen saw a chance to turn a quick buck. There were counterfeiters back in the days of antiquity, punching out fake denarii and solidii. In all of those cases someone is basically attempting to cheat an unsuspecting buyer. In some cases fake coins are made to fool the public, in other cases a fake rarity is created to fool a collector and in some cases legitimate coins are defaced or altered to appear to be more valuable. We often use the term synonymously, but that may not always be the case. Counterfeit fake coins and notes are part of the landscape of collecting.
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