Posted 05/26/2011 06:42 am
Without weight and magnet info, my gut response to them would be "fake". My reasons:
- I've found that "the camera doesn't lie" with regard to these fakes. The zero-silver-content alloy they often use looks silvery enough in hand, but try to take a pic of it and it comes out yellowish. The background paper is nice and white, so it's not bad lighting - the coin really is yellowish.
- They both have the very broad rim and rounded profile typical of these fakes. The broadness comes from the cast-copied die shrinking slightly. The rounded edges come from smoothing off the distinctive deformation caused by the ring die these fakes are usually pushed through.
- The fine details look worryingly wrong, unexplainable by wear, poor strike or worn dies. The "fat man" has a clear sharp collar and lots of hair, but his epaulette is almost completely gone. And the dragon has a nice even coating of scales - the scales on the "high points", in the midline of the body, are usually either worn away or not present due to poor strike.
- I've found that "the camera doesn't lie" with regard to these fakes. The zero-silver-content alloy they often use looks silvery enough in hand, but try to take a pic of it and it comes out yellowish. The background paper is nice and white, so it's not bad lighting - the coin really is yellowish.
- They both have the very broad rim and rounded profile typical of these fakes. The broadness comes from the cast-copied die shrinking slightly. The rounded edges come from smoothing off the distinctive deformation caused by the ring die these fakes are usually pushed through.
- The fine details look worryingly wrong, unexplainable by wear, poor strike or worn dies. The "fat man" has a clear sharp collar and lots of hair, but his epaulette is almost completely gone. And the dragon has a nice even coating of scales - the scales on the "high points", in the midline of the body, are usually either worn away or not present due to poor strike.
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
