My First Countertfeit Lesson Learned

What are the indicators that it is counterfeit?

It seems that counterfeiting is on the rise... The (124) Not Allowed - Auto-Removed website has an article about a dealer who got taken on a purchase of Morgan dollars. Turns out they're Chinese fakes!

Just curious, do you have any idea who made the fake coin you purchased? Was it a Chinese fake?

looks like a Chinese copy to me.

You indicate the edge is reeded. How were the reeds applied?

stewart Kind of looks like a ring die could have been used based on what appears to be corner grinding. Looks like they may have done the grinding by hand because the angle of the corner grinding seems to vary.

Here is a series of sketches I just made to try to illustrate what I mean by a ring die application - the process - the traces left by the process - and the finishing steps used by forgers to hide what they have done.

Drawing 1 This picture shows the ring die and a stack of completed coins. The stack of coins is forced through the ring die under high pressure. The ring is tapered - larger at entrance smaller at exit point. The inner surface of the ring is grooved. The grooves start out shallow and get narrower and deeper over the cross section of the die. These grooves (hardened steel) are harder than the coin metal and they cut into the edge of the coin. This is very much like a commercial pipe threader and operates on the identical principle. The metal displaced from the groove curls up into the recess of the die and in the process of passing through the die a reed is built-up.





Drawing 2 This drawing shows the completed reeds - of a normal collared press and a ring die. The RED lines show the spit top (actually the seam where the metal curls together) and the split ends (the area at the start and end of the reeds where there is inadequate metal). Because the collar die on a three die press has to be lowered before a completed coin is ejected - there will be scratches inside the reeds that cross the coin from face to face. The same or very similar scratches occur on ring die applications.





Drawing 3 This drawing shows a blow up of a cross section of a reed made in a ring die. To eliminate most or all of the visible top seam (split) the forgers will grind the edge of the coin. This usually results in the tops of the reeds having parallel scratches that cross from one reed to the next and circle the coin. This is not a normal wear pattern. Grinding in this fashion can leave a trace of metal curled up at the edge of the coin on the face of the coin where the grind stone LEAVES the coin.





Drawing 4 This drawing shows the 3 different grinds that are used to remove the traces of the ring die application. When a coin is edged with a ring die extra metal DRAGGS along and leaves a curl of metal at the edge of the coin that exits the DIE last. The First Grind #1 removes the split top and split tails on the reeds. The second grind is needed to remove the excess metal dragged along by the ring die. The 3rd grind, is needed to make both edges look the same. About 15 years ago many forgers (of cheaper items) did not do any of the grinds. But recently more and more forgers even the Chinese are adopting all THREE grinding steps.

The problem is that they do it TOO FAST using too coarse a grit on the grinders. This leaves parallel scratches where they should not be. However, on a high end fake more time will be spent and the results can be very deceptive. ALWAYS EXAMINE WEAR PATTERNS. Look for mechanical wear.





When grinds 3 and 4 are done by hand - the angle between the coin and the grinder often varies. That variation in angle means that the distance the grinder cuts into the top of the reed varies as you rotate the coin. I believe I see that happening on the picture of your coin. In person (and in focus) you should be able to see traces of this grinding.

Wow that is a awesome overview of the ring die process, swamperbob!

I never really understood or knew too much about how they are made.

Thanks.

very interesting thread, and very informative also.
I have a question: the "magnetic silver" - any idea what it might be ?
I have a beautiful fake Australian 1937 Crown, which looks great in pics; and even in hand, except it's too light. Like yours, it weighs about 70% of the genuine article, and it reacts magnetically. Without having done much research, I wondered if it might be pure or nearly-pure nickel ... any comments on that ?
I was fortunate, I bought mine through a well-known-internet-auction-site. The vendor described it as a counterfeit, and I was the only bidder. It's a nice contrast to the real article.

Back to my question: whatever the material is, it would have to be inexpensive enough, and malleable enough for the counterfeiter's business model. Nickel ? Cobalt ? Rare-earth ?

Peter in Oz

thankyou for that. I ought to have added to my list of criteria - "and must look a bit silver-like".

Counterfeits are a fascinating branch of numismatics.

Peter T.