Buying Counterfeit Coins

True counterfeits were made to pass in circulation as money at their face value. A fake is a piece made for sale to collectors at a profit due to its apparent numismatic value. A copy or reproduction is made for sale and often is that of a rare date but is usually so poorly done it should be obvious that it is not the real coin. These are often marked as copies. Then there are fantasies that are made to resemble coins but are of designs that never really existed.

Fakes are typically in the correct metal and often close or correct in weight. They often require specific knowledge of the series or date/mint to identify them.

Copies/reproductions are as a rule never in the correct metal, weights are off, and the images and/or lettering is off so much that they should be identifiable by even relatively novice collectors.


(Ah, the problem of not having standard definitions and sloppy use of terms. It makes it more difficult for everyone to be sure exactly what we are talking about.)

How about a fifth category? Imitation.
The term, as I've seen it used, can blur with "counterfeit," but seems to mean a contemporary coin that was intended to have a greater acceptance in circulation by adopting the style of a popular, established coin. Small silver coins of continental Europe in the Middle Ages often copied the design of English silver pennies:
http://www.britnumsoc.org/publicati...NJ_23_12.pdf
Also, the British George III halfpenny was counterfeited like mad, both in Britain and America. But when the states of Connecticut and Vermont started making their own official coppers, they imitated the George III design, as the man's head with the laurel wreath and the seated lady on the reverse were what people expected to have in their change.

Something you have to remember about the state coins is that some of the "real" ones were actually contemporary counterfeits.