Be careful out there
Reid Goldsborough
there, sent to me to evaluate:
http://rg.ancients.info/misc/English_penny_Chinese.html
Among my sets is "pennies" -- I follow the U.S. cent back to the British
bronze, copper, and silver pennies, follow them back to the Anglo-Saxon
sceat, follow that to the Roman denarius, and follow that to the Greek
drachm, including the first, an Aegina Turtle (more commonly seen in the
larger stater denomination). So this English penny, or what purports to
be one, falls within what I do.
I'm a student of coin authentication, with some knowledge in some areas
but mostly knowing enough to know what I don't know. I looked it under
my 16x loupe and stereo microscope, weighed and measured it, and checked
Spink and what I could find online. Then I showed it in person to a
dealer buddy, a sharp guy with a sharp eye who's an expert in British
coinage, traveling to the UK three times a year to buy British coins and
all kinds of other material to sell in the U.S. to his regular clients
and at coin shows and who has been doing this for three decades.
The above piece a copy of an 1865 Victoria bun head bronze penny, Spink
3954. What's worrying most to him is that this piece, as with many
others from China, isn't a forgery of a rare or expensive coin but a
common enough coin that it wouldn't normally elicit a great deal
scrutiny in a typical transaction. He said he would have bought this as
authentic, and that if authentic it's about an $85 coin at its grade,
EF-40 (using American grading).
He said the patina, green corrosion spots, squared-off rims, and die
breaks on the obverse at the queen's neck and on the reverse from the
side of the ship to the edge all give it an absolutely authentic look.
The only thing that's off, and the only reason he was convinced that
it's a forgery, is that the weight is appreciably wrong -- 9.96g
compared to the official weight of 9.4g. The diameter is the correct 31mm.
The Chinese for some reason seem to get the weight wrong a lot, but not
always. In general, they're getting better and better (worse and worse)
in all respects. This dealer is planning to now bring a digital scale
accurate to two decimal points with him on his buying trips. But that of
course isn't a panacea.
Be careful out there.
--
Consumer: http://rg.ancients.info/guide
Connoisseur: http://rg.ancients.info/glom
Counterfeit: http://rg.ancients.info/bogos