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Coin counterfeiting of valuable antique
, Counterfeit Coins (2007-26-09) Counterfeit antique coins are generally made to a very high standard so that they can deceive experts. This is not easy and many coins still stand out.
, Counterfeit Coins(2007-26-09) Between 2002 and 2006, approximately 400,000 counterfeit euro coins were removed from circulation; however, "the overall number is very small by historical standards and by comparison to the 69 billion circulating (genuine) euro coins." In 2014, it was estimated that 3.04% of all UK £1 coins in circulation are counterfeit. These coins were replaced on 15 October 2017 with new, harder to counterfeit, 12-sided bi-metallic coins.
Both scarce 1923-D and 1930-D dimes were found in circulation, and they are of interest to collectors since no such date-mint combinations were issued for this particular denomination. It has been suggested that they may have been part of an attempt by the
Counterfeit Silver Dollar Image Comparisons
* C. R. Gagg and P. R. Lewis, ''Counterfeit coin of the realm – review and case study analysis'', Second International Conference on Engineering Failure Analysis (ICEFA-11), Toronto, Canada, Sept. 2006, Engineering Failure Analysis, Vol 14, No 6, 1144 – 1152, 2007. * ''Forensic Materials Engineering: Case studies'', Lewis, PR, Gagg, C and Reynolds, K, CRC Press (2004).
Coin counterfeiting of valuable antique coin
A coin is a small object, usually round and flat, used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by ...
s is common; modern high-value coins are also counterfeited and circulated.Coin Counterfeiting, Counterfeit Coins (2007-26-09) Counterfeit antique coins are generally made to a very high standard so that they can deceive experts. This is not easy and many coins still stand out.
History
Counterfeits of higher-value coins in circulation, designed for general circulation at face value, have been made by criminals for thousands of years.Circulating coins
For modern coins in general circulation, the most common method of protection from forgeries is the use of bi-metallic coins made of twometal
A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...
s of different color, which are difficult to counterfeit at low cost. The most common way of forging these coins is to change the area that should be a different color by painting it; however, the paint is often easy to scratch off and the coins soon look very crude once worn. An increasing number of coins are cast from the same composition alloy as the real coin, but have poor reproduction of details such as the milling on the side of the coin and the stamped lettering.
When the euro
The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...
was introduced into Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
, there were initially very few counterfeits; however, the number increased massively as time went by. The high and increasing number of fake euro coins in circulation in 2004 led to the creation of a Technical and Scientific Center for the coordination of technical actions to protect euro coins against counterfeiting.EU Crackdown, Counterfeit Coins(2007-26-09) Between 2002 and 2006, approximately 400,000 counterfeit euro coins were removed from circulation; however, "the overall number is very small by historical standards and by comparison to the 69 billion circulating (genuine) euro coins." In 2014, it was estimated that 3.04% of all UK £1 coins in circulation are counterfeit. These coins were replaced on 15 October 2017 with new, harder to counterfeit, 12-sided bi-metallic coins.
Collectible counterfeit coins
A well known and popular numismatic item is the 1944nickel
Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...
counterfeited by Francis LeRoy Henning. Unlike official specimens, this spurious item is missing a large mintmark for the Philadelphia Mint. Because of a different wartime composition, all nickels of this period had large mintmarks. Normally the Philadelphia mint would not have included one, but in 1944 all of its nickels had a "P" above the dome of Monticello
Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...
. It is estimated that 100,000 of these coins were placed into circulation. Today they remain readily available to collectors.
Both scarce 1923-D and 1930-D dimes were found in circulation, and they are of interest to collectors since no such date-mint combinations were issued for this particular denomination. It has been suggested that they may have been part of an attempt by the Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
to sell its silver on the world market by counterfeiting (with full precious metal weight) U.S. coins. If so, the engravers blundered by producing "impossible" coins.
Among the examples of counterfeits of high-value collectible coins are the "Omega" coins produced in the early 1970s by an unknown counterfeiter who signed his creations with a miniature Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
letter omega
Omega (, ; uppercase Ω, lowercase ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and last letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numerals, Greek numeric system/isopsephy (gematria), it has a value ...
, and so came to be known as the Omega man. He is believed to have made over 20,000 fake 1907 high-relief nominally US$
The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
20 gold Double Eagle coins with the signature omega in the claw of the eagle, worth hundreds of millions of dollars at today's prices. His counterfeits are of such high quality that collectors will pay upwards of $1,000 for one; although a genuine coin sells for about $50,000 to $100,000. The same counterfeiter also counterfeited other US gold coins, including a large quantity of $3 gold pieces, dated 1874, 1878 and 1882, with the 1882 being the most prevalent. Three of the counterfeit $10 gold pieces, the 1910-P, the 1913-P and the 1926-P, have the omega placed upside down within the upper loop of the "R" of "LIBERTY" in the Native American's headdress.
See also
* Counterfeit coin problem *Counterfeit money
Counterfeit money is currency produced outside of the legal sanction of a state or government, usually in a deliberate attempt to imitate that currency and so as to deceive its recipient. Producing or using counterfeit money is a form of fraud ...
* Evasion (numismatics)
* Trevor Ashmore
References
* Forgotten Coins of the North American Colonies, Amazon Books, John Lorenzo (2017). * Identify counterfeit coins with imageCounterfeit Silver Dollar Image Comparisons
* C. R. Gagg and P. R. Lewis, ''Counterfeit coin of the realm – review and case study analysis'', Second International Conference on Engineering Failure Analysis (ICEFA-11), Toronto, Canada, Sept. 2006, Engineering Failure Analysis, Vol 14, No 6, 1144 – 1152, 2007. * ''Forensic Materials Engineering: Case studies'', Lewis, PR, Gagg, C and Reynolds, K, CRC Press (2004).