What is the connection between science and coins?
What do you need to know so not to purchase a fake coin?
How can you find a fake coin in your collection?
Do you suspect you have a fake coin or do you weigh possibilities to buy a new coin to your collection?
These and the other tips on this site.
Coin fraud is an unfortunate reality in the coin collecting marketplace, but you can avoid buying fake coins, and avoid coin fraud in general, by learning how to spot fake coins.
Avoiding coin fraud boils down to one basic point: knowledge. If you want to avoid becoming a victim of coin fraud and avoid buying fake coins, you first need to learn what the genuine coin looks like. On this site you can see and also purchase some examples of Russian coins of different periods (Peter I - Nikolay I, Alexander II - Nikolay II and Soviet Coins). Then it's just a matter of making some comparisons and employing a little bit of common sense. This is a main tip before making coin collection. Sometimes in our time of high technologies making some comparisons of genuine coins does not work to avoid becoming a victim of coin fraud and we need to look for better tips to avoid buying fake coins. To give an example, I'll use a fake silver coin types that is being produced in large numbers at last time.
What can you say of these Russian 1 Rouble (Ruble) of Ekaterina II coins? Are they original or fake coins?
The first category of fake coins is
intended for the production of counterfeits in circulation. The profit from the
sale was obtained by assigning the return on counterfeiters of these coins (the
difference between the production of fake coins and its nominal price). In some
cases this difference increases by reducing the content of precious metal (gold
or silver fake coins) or by replacing the precious metals by copper, bronze or
lead-tin alloy with drawing on mask coverage of the corresponding color or
silver electroplating.
Counterfeit coins for circulation not only
fabricated by counterfeiters but sometimes minted in state mints. Some of these
counterfeit coins made for release into circulation are objects of numismatic
research because in most cases they were playing a prominent role in the
economy of a country.
The second category of fakes intended to deceive collectors. These
forgeries have fundamental differences, depending on the time of production.Coin fraud is an unfortunate reality in the coin collecting marketplace, but you can avoid buying fake coins, and avoid coin fraud in general, by learning how to spot fake coins.
Avoiding coin fraud boils down to one basic point: knowledge. If you want to avoid becoming a victim of coin fraud and avoid buying fake coins, you first need to learn what the genuine coin looks like. On this site you can see and also purchase some examples of Russian coins of different periods (Peter I - Nikolay I, Alexander II - Nikolay II and Soviet Coins). Then it's just a matter of making some comparisons and employing a little bit of common sense. This is a main tip before making coin collection. Sometimes in our time of high technologies making some comparisons of genuine coins does not work to avoid becoming a victim of coin fraud and we need to look for better tips to avoid buying fake coins. To give an example, I'll use a fake silver coin types that is being produced in large numbers at last time.
What can you say of these Russian 1 Rouble (Ruble) of Ekaterina II coins? Are they original or fake coins?
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| Rouble coin of Ekaterina II, 1775 - averse |
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| Rouble coin of Ekaterina II, 1775 - reverse |
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| Rouble coin of Ekaterina II, 1777 - averse |
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| Rouble coin of Ekaterina II, 1777 - reverse |
I do not want to disappoint you but these are fake coins.
Spotting this fake coins and making some comparisons with the genuine coins you can say is that they do not "look right" for some measures :
1. Fake silver coins may or may not have a silver-plated finish on them. Although higher-quality struck fakes might look pretty convincing if they are plated, many fakers don't even bother to plate the coin. Silver has a distinctive sheen to it that is neither too harsh nor too soft or "soapy" looking.
2. On a fake silver coin types that introduced very pronounced blurred numbers of the years (1775 and 1777) looking with almost no relief.
3. Eagles and letters look soapy and dull with some blurring edges of bumps (looks like it was casting and not minting).
4. Most fake silver coins are made from silvery metal alloys that weigh less or more (silver-plated lead) than genuine silver. Weigh the coin in question: if the weight is wrong for the type, it is a fake coin. For some cases in our time of high technologies coin frauds may choose metal alloys with the same weigh of original silver coin. Thus the technique of size checking in home conditions is important too (diameter and thickness of the coin).
5. At a laboratory conditions with an appropriate equipment spectral analysis showed that in rouble 1775 silver 94%,
and in rouble 1777 at all 98%, while the original coins silver 84-85%.
As a result when compared step-by-step to a genuine silver coins, the coin fraud is obvious.
