Sniffing Out Fakes - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 4 / Views: 1,430
Westwood Arms Pillar of the Community United States 684 Posts	Posted 06/08/2012 3:15 pm Don Bailey called the other day, it sounds like Whitman has finally agreed to print his all and everything series of Mexico coin books. We had considered an e-version, but this is better. Anyway we got to talkng about fakes and Don said that Clyde Hubbard would rub a potentially spurious coin and smell it. Back in the day, Don was like "Clyde are you going to eat it now?" No, but the point is that Hubbard could determine metal alloy by smell. I guess that if you rub a coin, thereby heating it slightly, there is an odor or something. I tried this and could not tell the difference between real reales and fake reales. Laugh if you will, but has anyone else heard of this method of Counterfeit Detection? Report this Post to the Staff

coincollector0314 New Member United States 45 Posts	Posted 06/08/2012 4:21 pm All coins smell the same to me! Report this Post to the Staff
thai-vic Pillar of the Community Thailand 1509 Posts	Posted 06/08/2012 4:29 pm My first reaction is to laugh but if you think about it... some people are paid an awful lot of money for their heightened senses, perfumiers, wine experts, tea tasters, so I don't see why someone couldn't develop that particular talent. I think most of us would recognise the smell (or taste) of a copper coin on our fingers even after a blind test so why not? Report this Post to the Staff
Windchild Pillar of the Community Canada 1411 Posts	Posted 06/08/2012 4:42 pm I know that plated silver has an obvious odor... If memory serves it smells like rotting eggs Report this Post to the Staff
SteveCaruso Pillar of the Community United States 1796 Posts	Posted 06/08/2012 6:39 pm I've found that some ferric American counterfeits do tend to have a different smell from their silver counterparts ("bloody" from the iron), but the discovery was quite by accident. :-). Not sure about other fakes, but if they use the same materials I don't see why not. Report this Post to the Staff
	Replies: 4 / Views: 1,430

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