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 Replies: 12 / Views: 2,740 |
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Valued Member
Australia
56 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
1119 Posts |
so the fake gold panda's I have for any would be opportunists are flaunting the law?
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New Member
Australia
9 Posts |
The only Australian coins to be demonetised are the Holey Dollar and Dump, that means that any Australian coin that has served as legal tender (pre-decimal coins included), cannot be counterfeited or forged.
Just what is legal and what is actually enforced can be two different things. The AFP are not particularly well positioned to deal with cases of counterfeiting, even when those cases involve significant amounts of money and are brought to their attention.
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Pillar of the Community
1119 Posts |
Possessing counterfeit money or counterfeit securities (1) A person shall not: (a) have in his or her possession counterfeit money ( not being an excepted counterfeit coin), knowing it to be counterfeit money; or "excepted coin" means: (a) a coin that was a current coin in Australia at any time before 14 February 1966; or (b) a coin, other than a coin referred to in paragraph (a), that has been a current coin in a country other than Australia (whether or not the country concerned is still in existence) but is no longer a current coin in any country. "non-excepted counterfeit money" means counterfeit money other than an excepted counterfeit coin. from the underlined bits I take it to be no.  |
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Valued Member
 Australia
56 Posts |
Section 3 to me seems applicable.
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Valued Member
Australia
490 Posts |
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Valued Member
Australia
318 Posts |
Yes, enforcement seems to be lax. What of coins that have gotten out of the Mint by nefarious means: employees smuggling out mint sport such as double headers, wrong metal planchets etc.
Isn't a coin not officially issued still property of the mint, and in theory they could reclaim such?
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
2180 Posts |
Yes, but it's probably hard to prove that it's stolen government property and not a genuine error once someone has initially gotten away with it.
In the May 1981 Australian Coin Review there's an article about someone who was charged with possession of counterfeits and receiving stolen Commonwealth property after the police found 270 $200 coins struck on 10c planchets among other error coins. The article says that the only reason he was caught was because he was trying to offload large numbers to dealers, but it's sort of suggested that if he'd sold them slowly and one at a time no one would have suspected anything.
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New Member
Australia
1 Posts |
To be seriously clear about this important question, and taking the correct answer to be NO ... if one has excepted counterfeit coins with no intent to defraud: 1. IF one had antique counterfeits (thought to be circa 1885) of an Australian Holey Dollar (dated 1760) and a Dump, and ... 2. IF one wanted to sell them as worthwhile collectible counterfeits (of some historic interest) WITH NO INTENT TO DEFRAUD, then: 3. That would be an allowable and legal transaction in Australia; per Sub-section 3 of http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/...1181/s9.html? 4. That is, given my example: Do I have the correct interpretation of the Australian CRIMES (CURRENCY) ACT 1981 - SECT 9? With thanks to Luke, ... |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
4411 Posts |
I believe the holey dollar and dump has had their legal tender status removed so I dont see a problem with it.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
2180 Posts |
I think you're in the clear. You have an excepted counterfeit coin and you know it to be counterfeit money but you have no intent to defraud.
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Moderator
 Australia
16826 Posts |
Quote:
The only Australian coins to be demonetised are the Holey Dollar and Dump, that means that any Australian coin that has served as legal tender (pre-decimal coins included), cannot be counterfeited or forged. I realise it's an old thread that's been bumped, but this interpretation is not correct. The Crimes (Currency) Act 1981, as originally proposed, would have made all counterfeits and replica coins illegal, no loopholes. After feedback and input from coin collectors and particularly from museums, who at the time were primarily concerned that they would all suddenly become criminals overnight just because they owned a few replicas or predecimal fake coins, the law was modified to its present form. Ownership of counterfeit predecimal coins is perfectly legal under this law; that's the whole point of the "excepted counterfeit coin" business. Offering to sell counterfeit predecimal coins is also legal, so long as there is no intent to defraud i.e. the seller announces clearly that they are counterfeit. The collectors that helped write this law into its present form never foresaw that overseas counterfeiters would mass-produce predecimal fakes and offer them for sale here in bulk quantities. So yes, offering to sell a fake Holey Dollar is perfectly legal, whether the fake was made in 1819 or 1885 or 2013. But you still can't do it on ebay. ebay has chosen to play it safe and forbid the sale of counterfeit coins completely. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
541 Posts |
Sap's right on the ball, to add to it, certain types of doctored coins (e.g. filing, filling, buffing) are also considered counterfeit under Australian law and you can't sell them without declaring them as such. It's not very well policed though which is understandable considering the point of the law was to prevent people from shaving gold/silver off coins then hiding the damage through doctoring so they can pass the coins in circulation.
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Replies: 12 / Views: 2,740 |
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Posted 09/26/2012 8:19 pm
