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Posted 11/17/2022 05:08 am
What we do know is they found 124 dies.Page 169 of Heads I Win.
That is a lot of dies. What we also know is a lot of blanks (100s) were found with those dies, in various metals, and some samples of his work.
The alleged Gees Florin I have is not perfect and from what the book says Gee spent a fair amount of time having the press run at various pressures on various materials. The two silver Florins I have both seem to have had a touch too much pressure.
Spectroscopy was a tool to help prosecute Gee. It is one way to test if a gold coin or token is a Gee or real. Part of the evidence was Gee had coins with the same spectral readout as the blanks Gee purchased from his supplier. Material clearly not from the period of Adelaide Pounds, early sovereigns, Port Phillips and so on because the blanks Gee used contains elements not available back in those days. That is how good some of the gold fakes were. It took spectroscopy to reveal their falseness.
I can easily see hundreds of pieces of his work having been made as he developed the perfect fake. I would not be surprised if Gee made a 100 Florins in various materials on his way to the examples he sold.
Anything not on gold blank that was a development trial for a gold coin or token would likely have survived. Testing a sovereign die on lead, copper or silver for example. Gee is faking numerous coins in numerous materials. We are talking hundreds of test examples to get a handful of quality fakes.
Gee kept a book with data from his days at the press. He made lots of trial and error test examples and he had 124 dies. That is lots of Gees but mostly not 'perfect'.
Gee was quite frugal, police found a page of gold filings. Some of his failed tests would have been 'recycled', especially any gold failures, but lots of copper, bronze, silver and lead failures, and successes, would have survived.
As for Henderson, I can't help but think Gee had something on him. Why would Henderson go back to the mint, after retirement, to fetch the 50c pattern coins for Gee unless Gee had something on him.
Why would Henderson not throw Gee under the bus at Gees trial?
It is speculation but perhaps Henderson liked films and that gave Gee leverage.
That is a lot of dies. What we also know is a lot of blanks (100s) were found with those dies, in various metals, and some samples of his work.
The alleged Gees Florin I have is not perfect and from what the book says Gee spent a fair amount of time having the press run at various pressures on various materials. The two silver Florins I have both seem to have had a touch too much pressure.
Spectroscopy was a tool to help prosecute Gee. It is one way to test if a gold coin or token is a Gee or real. Part of the evidence was Gee had coins with the same spectral readout as the blanks Gee purchased from his supplier. Material clearly not from the period of Adelaide Pounds, early sovereigns, Port Phillips and so on because the blanks Gee used contains elements not available back in those days. That is how good some of the gold fakes were. It took spectroscopy to reveal their falseness.
I can easily see hundreds of pieces of his work having been made as he developed the perfect fake. I would not be surprised if Gee made a 100 Florins in various materials on his way to the examples he sold.
Anything not on gold blank that was a development trial for a gold coin or token would likely have survived. Testing a sovereign die on lead, copper or silver for example. Gee is faking numerous coins in numerous materials. We are talking hundreds of test examples to get a handful of quality fakes.
Gee kept a book with data from his days at the press. He made lots of trial and error test examples and he had 124 dies. That is lots of Gees but mostly not 'perfect'.
Gee was quite frugal, police found a page of gold filings. Some of his failed tests would have been 'recycled', especially any gold failures, but lots of copper, bronze, silver and lead failures, and successes, would have survived.
As for Henderson, I can't help but think Gee had something on him. Why would Henderson go back to the mint, after retirement, to fetch the 50c pattern coins for Gee unless Gee had something on him.
Why would Henderson not throw Gee under the bus at Gees trial?
It is speculation but perhaps Henderson liked films and that gave Gee leverage.
