3-D Printed Numismatic Fake Coins

Any images to look at?

Hello,

I currently work in an area that uses 3D printing in a limited capacity and so I might be able to put your mind at ease with this one.

Most 3D printing that is available to the every day person is entirely polymer based and so would not yield a convincing counterfeit coin.

However, some specialised industrial processes (like mentioned above) can use a CNC driven, very powerful laser to sinter/ weld powdered metal alloys in layers. This leaves a granulated surface and ridges that resemble a topographic map due to the object being built in layers. These layers are currently not very fine and would be unsuitable for recreating the fine details of expensive coins.

In addition not all metals can be printed in this way and the precious metal alloys and copper/bronze numismatic items have historically been made from will not lend themselves to 3D printing, meaning the alloys of printed coins will always catch them out.

For these reasons I don't think we need worry about 3D printed fakes, at least for now, and I would bet that it will always be more cost effective/ easier to create numismatic forgeries using recreated dies and attempting to recreate the original minting process.

Hope this helps,

Matt :)

I would worry a lot more about fakes from laser or computer cut dies from scanned genuine coins. I'm fairly sure this is how the fakes that have gotten past the TPG's were created.

Spark erosion die counterfeits have been around for almost 40 years. The computer controled cutting of dies from scanned images might be approaching 10 years. I don't think we have too much to worry about for some time yet on 3D printed fakes. They won't ring, and the density will be off making them too light unless they make them thicker than they should be, in which case the density or SG will still be off.

This.

As quality reduction lathes get into their hands, digitally enhanced images producing 3D printed galvanos are an increasing risk, too. That's still one generation behind the direct digital milling in our mints, but it's far more sophisticated than what we are currently seeing from the bad guys.

Yes, I own a few of those die transfer forgeries in PCGS slabs, have also seen scores of others in PCGS slabs, the fakes are really good and recently I saw a few that were perfect (*) with no detracting marks.
* I could only spot that they were fake as for that particular denomination/year I maintain a reference collection of every die pairing. Nobody can do that for every year/denomination so how many might we not spot for coins we are not experts in or for which it is impossible to have multiple Unc examples of every die pair.

I would suspect that some of the counterfeiters already have that tech.