A Fake Sovereign (Has Pictures Now)

Fake sovereigns could have many uses, from forging and uttering to card counters to cheap jewellery.

Apparently, it's a tradition in Greece for New Year's Day cakes to be topped with a British gold sovereign. For those families that can't afford a genuine sovereign, fake ones can be purchased. I even have one where King George's titles are thoughtfully translated into Greek letters!

We'll need to see pics to have a go at confirming it's fakeness.

Thanks for the pictures. That definitely looks like brass or bronze. It certainly does not seem to have been made as a gaming token. My best guess is that it was made as a novelty or as a contemporary counterfeit. What kind of perplexes me is that the details of the facial features (especially of the mustache) look even more detailed and sharper than that of real sovereigns.

The design isn't quite authentic; as Archraz implied, on genuine coins old Eddie 7 didn't have quite that much hair. Another giveaway is the beaded border on both sides - real sovereigns have denticles.

So it wasn't made to fool a numismatist, or anyone that looked at their coins closely (and most people would have looked at a gold coin closely if they were accepting it as money).

It's too "new" to be a card counter - Britain had laws banning imitation sovereigns made for that purpose by 1909. It could, of course, have been made outside Britain, like my Greek one.

Speaking of which, I dug it out of the album - here's a pic:



The Greek text says "Memento from the New Year's Day Cake, 1958" (Basilopita, literally "St Basil's cake" or "royal cake"). The portrait is of British king George V, who was long gone by 1958.

It scans rather well, but it's actually brass.

I agree with Sap, I have 2 of these tokens, 1 looks very similar to the 1958 token, but was made in 1957, the other one has Queen Victoria and the year 1956. If you Google Vasilopita (the Greeks seem to use V in place of B) you will find plenty of recipes for St Basil's Cake, traditionally eaten on New Year's Day. The cake is cut and slices are put aside for the Virgin Mary, Jesus and absent family members (and occasionally Goblins) and one for each family member present. Whoever finds the coin (which is hidden inside the cake in much the same way silver sixpences are hidden in English Christmas Puddings and other charms are hidden in King Cakes)gets good luck and the token. The Wikipaedia entry on King Cakes goes into the customs in quite a bit of detail.

Thanks for posting up the image Sap, I have been looking for confirmation that this is where the tokens are from and it is quite difficult finding any info.

Mark

I have a little coronation medallion with a similar design.