Counterfeit Detection: 1945-46 Saudi Arabia 4 Pounds

NGC - While this fake is mostly gold, it still comes up a little short.

Did you know that in the mid-1940s, more than a decade after Executive Order 6102 barred US citizens from owning gold, the Philadelphia Mint struck two types of gold bullion coins? Though they were struck at the mint, the coins were not issues for the United States. Rather, they were British denominations, a 1-pound and a 4-pound coin, which were struck for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in exchange for oil rights.

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Due to their unique history and numismatic allure, these pieces today are worth a significant premium over their bullion value. Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) graders were recently presented with the 4-pound coin pictured here.


Counterfeit (1945-46) Saudi Arabia 4P

Unfortunately for the submitter, this is not a genuine example of these one-of-a-kind issues. Instead, it is a counterfeit that could have been produced for several reasons. With its high quality and gold content (88 percent as opposed to the proper 91 percent), it very well could have been struck to fool collectors. However, it is also possibile that, like many counterfeit gold coins originating from the Middle East, this specimen was struck in order to mask the true source of someone's wealth or to lend credence to a gold deposit to a bank or sale to a coin dealer.

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