Fake £1

I suspect that davidrj's 20p was dropped and spent a bit of time lying on the ground, perhaps among leaves and grass in a damp place. I've fuond several like that with my metal detector, and some completely brown ones that had been buried for a long time. The washed-out appearance of the Queen's head may be due to harsh cleaning - if I dig up grotty cupro-nickel coins, I quite often rub them between my fingers in sand before spending them.

Interesting stuff , that is a very nice fake !

I have few questions about your specimen:
1.) Were did you get it ? 2.) Did the obverse and reverse align ? 3.) what was the edge lettering like ?

Hi Henry

...since there are many designs or varieties of pound coins , the counterfeiters have lots of choice in terms of which design they choose , what you are seeing from the varieties of fakes shown here is probably the sum of the work of many different counterfeiters -some of whom have been or are still in the slammer , from what I have seen it seems they like faking pound coins with less intricate reverses .....for obvious reasons

andyg, that £2 looks spray-painted to me, you can see where the gold has seeped under the (1p?) masking at 10 o'clock on the obverse, also that it's wearing off the outer lettering and rim on that side. I've yet to find a single fake £2 in London though!

Have truly bimetallic counterfeit coins appeared anywhere in the world, made from blank components (rather than taking scrap middles and outers and reassembling them, as has happened with Euro coins)?

In this view, it looks like an iced bun or Wedgwood pottery with the silver overlaid on the gold! Or is that an optical illusion? Whatever it is, I can't see how it could be something other than an overlay or coating of one metal on another. You would not get an irregular join between a solid ring and a solid middle of different metals. That would require one metal to be melted down and carefully poured into the space in another or around another. It would be far simpler just to stamp perfectly round medallions into perfectly round washer-shapes and get a more convincing result no?

1. Whatever it is, I think the last thing anyone would attempt is to cast a truly bimetallic coin, though they might cast in one metal and then coat it appropriately.

2. It's very hard to judge from images I know, but all the other fake £2 examples I've seen pictured have a 'satin' finish on the middles, apparently as yours does e.g. http://ukfakeanderrorcoins.50webs.com/OTHERS.HTML, https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...16440&type=3

3. I've only read of two £2 counterfeiting operations being uncovered: the East London gang that spray painted struck fakes, and this one where (reportedly) cast fakes were electro-plated: http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/n...aker_jailed/ Do you think yours could be from either of these? Regards.

>>>> You would not get an irregular join between a solid ring and a solid middle of different metals

Here is what happens if the middle is off center (not mine sadly)


More from around the world on this page;
http://bencoins.com/bimetallics/

I've never come across a magnetic fake - but I must admit I've not tested all the fakes with a magnet. Most of the fakes I find go (via the local dealers) to a collector of them.

As for this one - it is indeed off-colour, both the brass and copper-nickel colour is out when compared to a genuine coin.



The reason I think it is two-metal is that the brass/copper-nickel divide passes through some parts of the design - If it were painted I would have expected the paint to hide details - not pass through them.

Notice how on the portrait side the brass is inside the ring of dots, yet above the date the copper-nickel is outside the dots - this suggests that the middle wasn't quite lined up when the two halves were compressed together - just like the error genuine £2 above - though a lot less spectacular.

Finally, the painted coin I've had since about 2002 - the new one was was found in January this year.

Have you seen this article -
http://www.nltimes.nl/2013/12/12/bu...tish-pounds/
The reason for mentioning this company is that it would take some serious kit to make the above coin!