1936 Italy 20 Lire Vittorio Emanuele III Coin Real Or Fake?

It has the color of a number of fakes I have. But that's just a photo, which by itself, is not a good diagnostic for me.
I have fakes with good weight's and bad, so being about right is also not a good diagnostic.
I have a step by step process to determine genuine or fake in my shop- we just can't do that here.
A good first step is to find out if it is .800 silver or not.

bagtosser That particular coin is often seen as a Numismatic Forgery (NF). That means it was expressly made not to circulate as currency but rather it was made to fool a collector. A counterfeit, in particular a Circulating Contemporary (or Contemporaneous) Counterfeit (CCC) was made to circulate along side genuine coins of the same type.

There is a world of difference. Most NF coins should be melted and are nearly worthless, while CCC coins are historic collectables with some value beyond metal content.

Both can be collected to illustrate the types that are not genuine.

Here there are some worrisome signs. The color and streaking of the color noted earlier, but also the appearance on the Reverse (date side) of the reeds. When a cheap cast copy is supplied with reeds, the forger often does that by forcing a stack of coins through a tapered ring die. The ring die contains the reeds cut in reverse and when the coins are pressed through the die some metal is dragged along leaving similar traces on the side that goes through the die last.

Some VERY tight collars can produce at time a somewhat similar appearance however here the effect looks incorrect.

I would start by presuming the coin is not genuine and work to prove it is real.

Specific gravity (to confirm 0.800 silver) will be difficult unless you own an analytical balance. XRF could be employed but unless you get a metals lab to certify the result I would not accept that alone. A handheld XRF in this case is almost useless for authentication unless in indicates a nickel or nickel copper alloy.

The best bet is to examine the edge under a 60-100X binocular microscope looking for the tell-tale signs of a ring die edging. I have explained that issue and what to look for before on this forum.

Albert I agree with you completely that in hand it is often rather easy to identify fakes of both types. But having a coin in hand is a luxury and learning to spot the new fakes in photographs is critical.

Having collected CCC types for many years (now 63) and in the process trying to avoid NF types, I have learned to look for tiny clues that modern NF coins often possess - like the reed traces on one side in this case. Not fool proof but pretty good.

Pictures are far from worthless especially when it comes to fakes we have seen before.

Albert That is a sensible position.

When I worked for ebay, we of course had to use pictures alone when we voted on authenticity. Absolute certainty was impossible in many cases but we had other "options".

The ebay rules required that the pictures had to be clear. So we could ask the seller to post better picture or face termination. That usually resolved the issue, but it was time consuming.

Since the Coin Watch Committee was terminated in 2013, ebay no longer takes a position on authenticity and leaves that up to the buyer alone. That policy is legally valid since ebay is a venue NOT an auctioneer. "Let the buyer beware" is a very legitimate position to take unless you represent yourself as an auctioneer.

to the Community!

Thanks for all the replies. I will send the coin to get graded. Not so much for value but as a "need to know" thing.

Besides, I used the coin for a few lottery scratch tickets and won $200!!