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TomGoodheart

£1 coins - fake and otherwise

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Two questions, as this isn't quite my area!

First - on proof coins people talk of 'mirror' like fields. Does this mean the field is flat? I have just been given a 1997 £1 coin with very shiny fields. However when I hold up the coin the reflection is distorted. The coin has been circulated and I'm just curious if it might be an escaped proof or just a specimen coin someone had liberated from its packaging? Sadly my scanner just can't show shine accurately!

Second - I have just received my third counterfeit £1 in the same number of weeks. The E of ET is botched and the S of DECUS smaller than the rest of the lettering. The cross is off centre. Plus it's heavier than it should be. Anyone else find there seem to be more of the things around than there used to be?

post-129-1155923663_thumb.jpg post-129-1155923625_thumb.jpg

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Post script: Got out my big lens and decided it's not good enough for a proof - just a nice coin that's now been used as change.

I am however still interested in if anyone else thinks there has been a recent influx of counterfeit quids into circulation?

Edited by TomGoodheart

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I had a menai bridge recently, it was a very weak strike and sort of odd looking, no at all attractive. In hind sight I suspect it was likely a fake.

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I work in a department store and we have a huge collection of fake £1 and £2 coins, some are awful but there is a batch of bridge ones we have had in recently that are quite good.

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I'd like to see them! I'll even give you good pounds for them.

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I have a fake £1 which is so bad there are about seven things about it which shout "dead giveaway". I got it in change from a taxi driver last year. He was about to give me change and then fumbled again in his coins, no doubt aiming to offload a fake on a gullible passenger. I might have called his bluff and said something, but the coin was so bad it was good, so I held my peace and kept it.

Geoff

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Actually i thought there were alot less fakes in circulation than there used to be. 2001-2 was the period when fakes were here, there and everywhere.

As it stands i'm actually putting together a date set of fake £1 coins, currently i have 2004, 2002, 1994 and 1988.

I haven't seen any others in a few months though. The 1988 one came as a surprise, i thought that was the only design to have escaped it as of yet!

Unfortunately they are all 'correct' forgeries, i haven't seen any wrong reverse for year, or wrong edge inscription for design ones in some time. I've still yet to find one with all three wrong, but one day perhaps!

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My collection at work is getting pretty interesting ill post a pic for you, I have about 25 £1 coins, various dates and faces, and metals too, and around 4 or 5 £2 coins, my favourite is a pound coin made from a silver coloured alloy, the colour is 100% wrong! lol There is a coin made from bi-coloured metal with arabic script that gets used as a £2 coin quite often as well.

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Unfortunately they are all 'correct' forgeries, i haven't seen any wrong reverse for year, or wrong edge inscription for design ones in some time. I've still yet to find one with all three wrong, but one day perhaps!

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I'd be interested in purchasing your fake collection, even for a little more than face value.

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Unfortunately they are all 'correct' forgeries, i haven't seen any wrong reverse for year, or wrong edge inscription for design ones in some time. I've still yet to find one with all three wrong, but one day perhaps!

In that case you'd love mine. It's dated 1995, but the reverse, instead of the Welsh dragon, has the Scottish thistle, and the edge inscription is the English "Decus et Tutamen". Or least that's what they were attempting, because what it says, in crude and uneven letters, is "DECUS EE L TUTAMEN".

On top of these blunders, the reverse is totally out of alignment with the obverse and both sides have a dent in the centre where the surface metal has worn away to show the (lead based?) alloy underneath. A real beaut!

Geoff

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I'll go to double face value, but £5 is too much.

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I agree five is too much, but for Geoff's example i'd be willing to pay it. It's the perfect example of everything being wrong.

Other than that i don't actually intend to buy (or attempt to depending upon his answer) any more fakes, as i'm gonna harvest them from change.

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I agree five is too much, but for Geoff's example i'd be willing to pay it. It's the perfect example of everything being wrong.

Other than that i don't actually intend to buy (or attempt to depending upon his answer) any more fakes, as i'm gonna harvest them from change.

Well, I can't say I'm not tempted - and it would be going to a good home. Do you want to private me and we'll sort something out.

Thanks - Geoff

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Well, it's nice to see there are other people out there with an enthusiasm for fakes!

One thing I'm curious about is that, strictly speaking, is it not illegal to posess cointerfeit coin of the realm? I presume the fact that we're all demonstrably collectors might be considered a mitigating factor (plus the fact that my local boys in blue (and girls) have rather better things to do than pester numismatists) but I wonder if there's any risk if one's collection gets sizable?

Are you planning on keeping the 'coins' you buy Chris, or put them up for sale?

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It is strictly speaking illegal, but it was mentioned here once by wise old Oli that the folks in blue are not likely to do anything because it isn't really in the public interest. They need to spend resources finding out who makes them, not who collects them.

I'll keep them, with my collection of various fakes from the last few hundred years....Which I really must photograph fully one day.

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Chris Perkins Aug 30 2006, 11:00 PM Post #16

I'll keep them, with my collection of various fakes from the last few hundred years....Which I really must photograph fully one day.

That'd make an interesting resource when it's done, if you felt like posting them somewhere...

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Well heres a list of the fakes I have :-

£2 coins

Date Face Legend

1998 Normal Face Standing On the Shoulders Of Giants

1998 " "

2000 " "

2001 " "

£1 Coins

Date Face Legend

1983 Coat Of Arms Decus Et Tutamen

1984 Thistle Nemo Me Impune Lacessit

1984 " "

1992 Oak Tree Decus Et Tutamen

1993 Coat Of Arms "

1993 " "

1996 Celtic Cross "

1996 " "

2000 Dragon Decus Et Tutamen

2000 " Pleidol Wyf Im Gwlad

2000 " "

2001 Celtic Cross Decus Et Tutamen

2001 " "

2002 Lions "

2002 Lions "

2003 Coat Of Arms "

2003 " "

2004 Bridge Entwined lines

2004 " "

2004 " "

Worn Leek Pleidol Wyf Im Gwlad

Phew thats a start!

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coinwelshpoundfakeqz3.jpg

I've this fake? 'DECUS ET TUTAMEN' 1995 welsh pound coin.

Only found it today, and remembered this thread.

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