| Author |
 Replies: 50 / Views: 9,663 |
|
Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
Has anyone noticed an increase of these recently? The Royal Mint estimates somewhere between 1-3% but I seem to be getting far more than that - off the top of my head somewhere between 5-10%! I could quite easily pull 2 or 3 obvious ones a week out of my pocket change. Its not a huge problem as nobody really seems to care (I've never been given one back as I try to spend them) they just circulate around but at some point they need to be removed from circulation so who ultimately takes the hit? |
|
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3098 Posts |
Quote:
I could quite easily pull 2 or 3 obvious ones a week out of my pocket change. Wow really? Are the fakes that frequent? How badly made are the really bad ones? |
|
Pillar of the Community
 United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
I'll post a pic of the one I got today - If I didn't spend it in the pub earlier :)
I'm not sure if they are that frequent country wide but in Derby I seem to get loads - far more than I would consider small scale counterfeiting.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
This is the one I got today - it looks different in the hand but is what they call 'soapy' - the details are very weak and it is also a very yellow gold colour. The obverse and reverse match up correctly but the edge design has gaps in it and oscillates up and down as well as being different depths.  |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3098 Posts |
Wow ouch... that's definitely fake. So do most Brits just accept it and pass it along again?
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
Yep - I've never been given one back when spending and never questioned a suspect one when its been given to me.
I think the fact that we have so many different designs circulating is a bad thing. It makes it harder to spot them but if you look closer they are there and in big numbers!
Been looking on the internet and found a story about a man in London who made 14 million fakes over 7 years. He got caught but how many dont?
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
BTW - is that a Swiss banknote on your avatar WD? It looks familiar but I cant place it.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3098 Posts |
yeah haha that is Swiss, but from the old series.
|
|
New Member
United Kingdom
23 Posts |
The Royal Mint knows rightly that those percentages are lower than reality... most people just pass them on without noticing, I know that I must have. There are some really bad ones out there.. and even if you did know, the bank won't take them, so who wants to take the fiscal hit?
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1682 Posts |
Are you sure the banks actually check that closely?
All I see them do is put the bag of coins on a scale.
To me that posted £1 seems to be in better condition than most of the £1 is see down in West Berkshire.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
Finding it hard to take a picture of it that shows just how bad it is - this may be better, its taken along side a real one.  To be honest the pic still doesn't show the difference in colour very well. The fake makes the picture look blurred but its the coin that has a blurred finish. I'm not sure what the banks do to pull the fakes out - I'm not even sure they want to find them as whoever does find them looses out and with between 30 and 60 million of them in circulation it could get expensive for a bank to make a stand. This article is interesting - a bank issuing change that was 4% fake! Their picture is very similar to mine. http://www.thelondonpaper.com/thelo...-circulationWhat I'm most interested in is the fact that its illegal to spend these knowingly. I know that its unlikely that anyone would ever get charged over unsuspectingly passing the odd fake on but the fact remains that maybe 5% of £1s are fake and worthless. So that means that for every 100 £1s you spend you are passing at least 5 fakes on to someone else. What can be done to fix the problem without everyone loosing 5% of the value of the £1s they own? Also as the initial post stated has anyone seen an increase of them recently, due I would think to the economic problems over the last 24 months? Edited by bobbyhelmet
05/13/2010 8:27 pm
|
|
New Member
United Kingdom
23 Posts |
I think there has been an increase over the last few years.. moreso this last couple of years.
The percentages are worked out by the amount of fakes the RM takes out of circulation annually.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Turkey
870 Posts |
This is an area I am intrested in, even though it has almost close to nothing numismatical value, I still colelct fake 1 Pound coins made for circulation. So far, I've got about 15 different designs, not matrching obverse and reverses and several different alloys. Oldest I have is dated 1993, and seen a lot of circulation. The newest is 2007 and seen little circulation. I have a 1993 rampart lion wrong reverse, and a 1997 rampart lion wrong reverse design too.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
I'm interested in these too - Think I'll see what I can pull out over the next few weeks and will let you know if I find anything as interesting as yours. I think your right that most would see them as having little numismatical value but I think they are important - maybe because I see myself as being interested in coinage and economys rather than just amassing a coin collection. One thing that did strike me was how little forging has changed over the years - the below picture shows the £1 coins and also a fake and a real Tetricus Hilaritas coin both made in the late 2nd century. Its funny that both the fakes are slightly off colour and the deails on them are a bit 'soapy'. Just goes to show that people have been trying to 'cheat the system' for as long a system has been in place.   Edited by bobbyhelmet
05/13/2010 12:45 pm
|
|
Pillar of the Community
3660 Posts |
Bobby, I know that you are in the land of these coins and have seen a great deal more of them than I have, but are you 'sure' that only one of the coins you picture is counterfeit? Neither of them looks right (around the mouth) to me.  |
|
Valued Member
United Kingdom
252 Posts |
|
| |
Replies: 50 / Views: 9,663 |
Posted 05/12/2010 5:33 pm
