New Ebay Source For Replica Coins

Nice group of counterfits, I would love to see how they make all these different coins.

G'day & thankyou,
please look at -
"Hong Kong dollar 1868
Edward replica
Item number: 160130393350"
- yes the reverse is dated 1868;
- and the obverse is King Edward VII ...
who didn't ascend until 1901.
This might make a lovely companion to my 1907 QE2 mule one-penny, in silver, but it's ruined by the word "copy": I only collect genuine forgeries.
Peter in Oz

Oops, Peter stole my thunder.

Just in case anyone is interested - I won 9 coins from this fellow - some for as little as 10 cents which means $2.50 with shipping. That is not bad for marked copies. The word COPY always has a chilling effect on price. So I paid just under $50 for the lot which is good considering the new dies in the group. I have not see the Bolivian or the Pattern Trade dollar before.

However, when they got here - NONE of the coins were marked! I guess he gyped me.

The coins use the same molds as the coins in the picture but there is no word copy. Makes me wonder if the word was actually ever there on any of the coins. I looked at some of the pictures and there is a lighter area near the word COPY. Looks to me like he took a picture of a lighter color coin. Perhaps he photoshopped the word onto the pictures? I don't know, but don't really care. These will never be sold. They are interesting because they expand my group of examples of new forgeries.

They are made with transfer dies and molds - some look cast while a most look like strikes. The metal has essentially no flow characteristics so I suspected a high zinc alloy, but 8 of 9 are magnetic (simple iron or steel). The non-magnetic coin is slippery. That one (the 1796 US dollar) is Zinc. They are all made with a reeded edge - so they are not good in person from that standpoint. The weights are LOW - 18.5-19.7 grams. Edges are applied using two or three different methods - ring die, roller die and a grinding method. The ring die is clear on the zinc copy (split tail reeds and ground edges). The roller die is used on over half of the coins. With steel planchets it makes a poor edge with shallow reeds that are poorly defined. The roler die leaves ONE overlap - or a blank area if they don't go far enough (as is seen on the 1835 Bolivian). The third type is characterized by a pronounced curved edge with v groves ground into the edge mechanically.

But overall, in person, these coins DO NOT LOOK CONVINCING - with one exception. The 1795 US dollar actually looked nice in a holder. The color in person was better than the picture (because the seller obviously is using canned photos). Until I took it out and saw the reeded edge - I liked the look. It certainly makes a GREAT and inexpensive space filler for anyone who can't afford $3,000 for an original. It could be a problem for a real novice who does not know the originals have a lettered edge (applied by a Castang machine).

houston_guy462004 They are definitely not lead. The magnetic ones are iron or steel. The "slippery" or "greasy" feeling one might possibly have some lead mixed in, but I still believe it is largely zinc because of the hardness and the fact it does not leave a mark when dragged across a shhet of white paper.

As far as buying these from China - it is the cheapest way. One thing I have found about dealing with the Chinese forgers is that they do send the material. So far I have not lost a coin from China. However, domestic mail is a problem - I just had another empty envelope show up today.

In the US you are dealing with a secondary supplier, or with a collector who got taken and is trying to recover some of his costs. The vast majority of these modern fakes come from China or Eastern Europe where they are legal to manufacture. I don't know of anyone making them here in the US in large numbers, because of legal issues.

The only positive in getting these coins locally is that you can see them first. But that appertains to any coin bought on ebay. Essentially it is always a gamble.

The electrotypes as a group are some of the best copies of coins ever made. I am not aware of anyone still using that technique however. Most of those date to the 1800s. They were made to "fill out" collections by supplying copies of very rare coins. They were never intended to fool collectors - that is why they never attempted to hide the edge seam.

These are often confused with struck copies produced from dies made using spark erosion - a less precise form of electrolytic process. Spark erosion copies were commonly used in forgery and the technique persisted until very recent times.

Injection molding using dental plastic molds is currently the best mass production method of producing an exact copy. But the Chinese have within the past 3 years also started producing struck copies in high grade silver. They have used 0.925 (sterling) and 0.999 fine rounds machined down as a source of planchets. These planchets are heat softened and struck with dies made from dental plastic. These dies are much softer than either steel of bronze dies, so fewer copies are made - however, they are fully adequate for a limited number of strikes. The ones I have examined personally, including a simply fantastic copy of the 1795 dollar with a lettered edge will deceive even relatively savvy collectors.