Chinese forgeries
Reid Goldsborough
the latest round of these, made in that Chinese forgery workshop the
photographs of which widely circulated online and in print. Here's one
place where these photographs are now:
http://coins.about.com/od/worldcoins/ig/Chinese-Counterfeiting-Ring
Some of these, which were loaned to me by a fellow coin collector, are
fairly obvious (1856 Flying Eagle cent made of copper instead of
bronze, thinner than it should be, and underweight), others very
deceptive (1799 Draped Bust dollar of nearly the exact weight (26.89g)
with the only indication it's false, a subtle one, being that under
magnification the edges are seen as too neat and squared off rather
than beveled).
The 1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln cent, incidentally, was the tip-off that
these were in all likelihood made through transfer dies. Very
attractive piece, if authentic, that would probably have graded MS-65
Red. I don't know if anybody else has written about the techniques or
diagnostics of these forgeries. You read it here first. <g> Anyway,
this piece has the reverse of a 1909 V.D.B. cent, with the "B"
crossbar horizontal instead of diagonal. The "S" mint mark appears
tooled on and lacks a notch in the upper half as it should have. The
details, as with all these particularly Chinese fakes, are fairly good
if very slightly mushy, which is characteristic of many different
kinds of fakes, and of some authentic coins too if improperly struck.
The biggest giveaway though with this particular fake is its weight --
3.32g compared to the weight 3.11g.
At some point I'll be adding photos of those coins I've seen to my
Draped Bust and other sites.
Anybody else seen these in hand?
www.numismatic.biz / www.worldwidecoins.co.uk
"Reid Goldsborough" <reidgold...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:5c451841-8f4c-46aa...@v16g2000prc.googlegroups.com...
>I just had the opportunity to examine in person about a half dozen of
> the latest round of these, made in that Chinese forgery workshop the
> photographs of which widely circulated online and in print. Here's one
> place where these photographs are now:
>
Since so many fakes are being made
1 - who is buying them
2 - are there enough coin collectors to be fooled to buy them
3 - more being made than needed in coin market
yours
--
Michael @ www.worldwidecoins.co.uk
mirror site www.numismatic.biz
World Banknotes & Coins
eBay http://members.ebay.co.uk/aboutme/worldwidecoins/