I don't understand why American coins, especially expensive ones like the American Buffalo or the Eagle do not have anti-counterfeiting systems worthy of the name.
British British coins have microtext and have copied the system invented by the Royal Spanish Mint-FNMT of the double latent image when the patent for it expired. Subsequently the Royal Spanish Mint-FNMT invented the quadruple latent image that it uses on its silver and gold coins (such as the Spanish Doubloon Toro and the Spanish Doubloon Caballo) which is a holographic image that shows four different images depending on how the coin is rotated.
Britannia
Spanish Doubloon Toro.
You can see the system. From 3:00 minut.
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In the 21st century, it makes no sense that a one ounce gold coin does not have advanced anti-counterfeiting systems.
The UK has one and two pound coins. Those are worth protecting. The US has the 25 cent piece as the largest denomination commonly used. Not worth protecting.
Does the U.S. Mint really produce enough gold and silver coins to worry about counterfeits? Maybe they figure anyone buying on the secondary market must know how to verify bullion metals.
One core reason to adopt stronger anti-counterfeit measures is that US bullion coins command a significant premium above bullion coins from other countries and private bullion rounds. It would therefore still be profitable to make fake ASEs and AGEs from genuine full-weight silver and gold. If they do a good job with making fake dies, the fakes could easily be indistinguishable.
I suspect two major reasons why that the US has not yet done so: (a) copying what other countries do is un-American; (b) these latent images create a large unsightly blob, which the coin designer has to somehow incorporate naturally into the design of the coin. Personally, both the Spanish and British coins in the OP fail in this aspect.
The latent image doesn't really work well on coins that are intended for circulation, as a heavily-worn coin will have the latent image completely worn away. All a counterfeiter has to do is to make their fakes look well-worn.
Finally, of course, an anti-counterfeiting device that you have to look at closely and skilfully, is less likely to be useful. British 2 pound coins have latent images on them. I have seen posted on the forum before fake 2 pound coins, where the counterfeiter has simply engraved the most prominent design of the latent image onto the latent image circle. Example on FakePound database. It looks good enough to "fool at first glance", and first glance is all most counterfeiters need to score a win.
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
The roll-clad bimetallic composition used for US circulating coins is a pretty effective anti-counterfeiting measure all on its own. And as far as gold bullion coins are concerned, any passable counterfeit would have to be made of gold — which pretty well takes the profit out of it. The US Mint can make them more cheaply (even though they buy their blanks) than a counterfeiter could. Cost of manufacture would eat up the small premium over bullion value.
Quote: US bullion coins command a significant premium above bullion coins from other countries and private bullion rounds. It would therefore still be profitable to make fake ASEs and AGEs from genuine full-weight silver and gold.
That seems to get into a dangerous area of risk vs. reward. Don't the ASE coins carry a U.S. currency denomination right on the coin? I believe that technically makes them legal tender, which in turn might mean that faking one is currency counterfeiting. We have some ferocious criminal penalties for that crime, and the U.S. is a big country with enough resources to track down and prosecute people.
It would seem way, way less risky for criminals to fake coins from a less hazardous country, particularly if it's going to be for minimal profit.
Also, if you can make a .999 silver coin with sufficient accuracy to mimic an ASE, then you probably have enough skill and proper equipment to issue your own beautiful coinage and sell it risk-free as bullion.
I like the security features of the Britannia, Maple Leaf and Spain 1 oz gold. I wish the US Mint would do something similar than the lame easy to copy edge missing reed on silver eagle and 1 oz gold eagle. There are a lot of fake silver eagles, preventing them from being imported has not been very successful. A hard to copy security feature would be welcome IMO. The silver eagle is either the highest or near the highest selling bullion coin in the world. Maybe the US Mint just doesn't care or see a need to change.
I've yet to see any reports of any fake Britannia or Maple Leaf with the newer security features they have.
Quote: (a) copying what other countries do is un-American;
Sad, but true. We still circulate the cent (penny), as well as both one and two dollar notes. And do not even get me started on our failure to adopt the metric system.
Quote: That seems to get into a dangerous area of risk vs. reward. Don't the ASE coins carry a U.S. currency denomination right on the coin? I believe that technically makes them legal tender, which in turn might mean that faking one is currency counterfeiting. We have some ferocious criminal penalties for that crime, and the U.S. is a big country with enough resources to track down and prosecute people.
It would seem way, way less risky for criminals to fake coins from a less hazardous country, particularly if it's going to be for minimal profit.
Yes, a fake bullion legal tender coin is 100% breaking US anti-counterfeiting laws. But the threat of being caught by the US government doesn't stop the Chinese fake-masters. Making fake US coins isn't even illegal in China, nor is offering them for sale on Alibaba - which is why the Forty Thieves websites make zero effort to stop them. If Americans want to buy them and import them into the US, that's the buyer's problem.
As for "minimal profit", well they make plenty of profit from selling fake Morgan dollars (which are also legal tender and therefore illegal under US law) and selling them in street markets around the world for a couple of bucks each. If they can make a couple hundred bucks profit per coin just by making a fake ASE using genuine gold, why wouldn't they? The only disadvantage is the increased overhead in having to buy an ounce of genuine gold. Of course, they could probably make a few extra bucks profit by using .950 gold, and making it weigh slightly less than an ounce - I'm not confident your typical bullion purchaser would notice either of those differences, especially if the fake ASE was decked out in a fake US Mint box with a fake COA (none of which are all that hard or expensive for Chinese fake-makers to replicate).
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
Quote: The roll-clad bimetallic composition used for US circulating coins is a pretty effective anti-counterfeiting measure all on its own.
Hadn't thought of that, but it's indeed (likely) pretty hard to fake; that red stripe on the edge is a dead giveaway of a real US clad coin (or, I guess, of some foreign clad coins, but those usually don't look all that much like US coinage), and 25 cents is probably less money than a counterfeiter would have to spend (per coin) to replicate it.
As for latent images, I know I've seen some... they're pretty, but they're usually "did you know this neat fact about this coin" instead of "this is how you tell that this coin is real". Anti-counterfeiting features don't work very well when most of the people using the coins don't actually know that the features even exist to be checked. Granted, I don't have a lot of experience with circulating coins that are actually worth enough to be counterfeited.
Quote: I'm not confident your typical bullion purchaser would notice either of those differences, especially if the fake ASE was decked out in a fake US Mint box with a fake COA (none of which are all that hard or expensive for Chinese fake-makers to replicate).
Someone has said that anti-counterfeiting measures wear out quickly and cannot be used on circulating coins. The Spanish Royal Mint-FNMT has been using latent images on circulating coins since it invented the system in the 1990s.
The point is that when there were only krugerrands and eagles you could not choose a gold ounce with an anti-counterfeiting system because there were none, but today, if I have to spend 2000 dollars on a gold coin and I can choose, I prefer an ounce that gives me more guarantees of its authenticity and is easier to verify.
I didn't say they "can't be used", I said they "don't work well", because they're easily damaged after heavy circulation. Lots of countries do use them (Spain, Britain, Taiwan and Japan, for starters). I just don;t think they're as effective an anti-counterfiet device as they perhaps "ought to be"., for the two reasons I indicated.
The first is circulation wear. Suppose we take that Spanish 500 pesetas, and wear it down to VF condition. Is the latent image then still usable as an anti-counterfeit measure? I think it wouldn't be. Latent images are popular with Mints, because Mints almost never see their own coins in worn-down condition.
The second is the handling required to see the image. I've handled British, Canadian, Japanese and Taiwanese latent-image coins, and it always takes me a good 30 seconds or so to hold the coin just right in good light to see the images - and I'm specifically looking for them. A casual coin user may not have the skill, time or adequate lighting to do so. While accurately replicating the latent images is difficult for the counterfeiter, making it "good enough to pass at first glance" is much easier.
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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Posted 08/27/2023 5:21 pm
