Smoking Out Fake Coins

{  Yes, some fake coins are virtually as bad as those in the main picture – image reblogged from pixabay.com  }

When you are shopping for coins, it is always important to know how to spot a fake.  Luckily there are several different ways of doing this and a few simple things to keep an eye out for.  Today I am going to tell you about a few.

As luck would have it, I just happen to have a few fake coins of my own.  Why?  Simple really; I find most of them so laughably bad that I will often decide to keep them so that every so often I can take them out and have a damn good chortle.  Because I have some forgeries to hand, I am going to use one to show you a few ways of spotting a fake.

Behold!  A ‘Mary Rose’ two pound coin.  Yes, there are two coins in my picture….. but only one is real –

{    To make things easier, the forged coin will be on the left in all photographs  }

Now I will show you a few ways of finding the stinky old fake one.

To begin with, the coin looks totally wrong.  The metal is too blingy, the lettering is too three-dimensional and the portrait of the queen is….. well, a bit crap really.  Once you start scrutinising all of these things you will soon smell a rat.

But that is just for starters……  Next there is the small matter of a coin weighing in correctly.  This is often an instant giveaway.  If you are looking to purchase a certain coin, you should always know what it should weigh in advance.  You should also get yourself some accurate scales (not at all expensive and they could save you a LOT of money).  In this case, a standard circulated ‘Mary Rose’ should weigh around 12.00g (all coins can vary very slightly from wear etc).  So, lets have a look at these……

{  First, the coin on the right.  Very slightly over but negligible  }

And now, the suspect one…..

{  Oh dear…… it is the better part of 1g too heavy.  Hmmm.  There is something not right here..  }

Next, we will have a look at the edge of each coin.  A ‘Mary Rose’ is supposed to read – ‘YOUR NOBLEST SHIPPE’ around it.

{  All looks good on the right-hand coin.  But with the other one.  ‘I see no ships’…….  }

So, all in all things aren’t looking too hopeful for the coin on the left.  In fact, it is already clearly a forgery.  But….. there is one last thing to note.  Something so inherently stoopid and obvious, you will wonder how the creator of this abomination overlooked it.  Ready?  It is the date.  The ‘Mary Rose’ two pound coin was released into circulation in 2011.  But the coin on the left reads……

{  OOPSIES!!!! Now we know that the person responsible for this was not merely a crim, he was also a total halfwit :/  }

The good news is that many fakes are easily spotted – as long as you know what you are looking for.  I do hope this post has been informative.  I also hope it will prevent you from being scammed by some rogue seller  🙂

© Article and images (apart from main one) copyright Mik Smith 2022