Posted 10/29/2012 06:32 am
About 30 years ago, I acquired a job lot of about 200 Chinese cast cash coins at 15 cents each. I had not a clue what I was buying, but suspected that at least a few of them must have been fake. Two years later I acquired a copy of Schjoth, and identified them all. That was a lot of fun. As it turned out, none of them were.
The book was donated by Portland Oregon Coin Club to the local public library, but was not borrowed. The book was sold in a job lot, and was bought by Spinks in London. I bought it off their Sydney agent in response to an offer, who knew I wanted a copy, for $14. That agent later formed Nobles Auctions, the leading numismatic auction house in Australia.
Because these coins are cast, the problem arises that they could have been easily forged in a contemporary time, or faked in modern times.
The question then begs itself:
How are the forged and faked coins of this series detected?
The book was donated by Portland Oregon Coin Club to the local public library, but was not borrowed. The book was sold in a job lot, and was bought by Spinks in London. I bought it off their Sydney agent in response to an offer, who knew I wanted a copy, for $14. That agent later formed Nobles Auctions, the leading numismatic auction house in Australia.
Because these coins are cast, the problem arises that they could have been easily forged in a contemporary time, or faked in modern times.
The question then begs itself:
How are the forged and faked coins of this series detected?
