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PINMAN

Unusual Pound coin ?

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When you spin a Pound coin around,shouldn't the obverse and the reverse,both be the same way up ?.I have checked countless other £1 coins,but unfortunately,all the others that i currently have,are all different designs,to the coin in question,so i have nothing to compare it to.......although all the others do have both sides facing the same way up.This may well be the way,that this particular design was minted,but it doesn't hurt to enquire.Please observe the attached pic.

Forgive the poor quality of the pic,but it should be good enough,to see what i'm going on about.

post-1987-1247662929_thumb.jpg

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Incorrect alignment is usually a way to spot a fake pound coin.

If you do find another one with the same design you could compare them and see if there are any other differences.

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Incorrect alignment is usually a way to spot a fake pound coin.

If you do find another one with the same design you could compare them and see if there are any other differences.

Let's assume for a moment,that this coin actually isn't a fake.If that were the case,do you think that the miss alignment,would give it any real significant value ?.

I'll try and provide some better pics,at some point tomorrow.

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Let's assume for a moment,that this coin actually isn't a fake.If that were the case,do you think that the miss alignment,would give it any real significant value ?.

Not really a useful assumption - there are so many forgeries around of £1 coins that you can 99% say that a misalignment = a fake.

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It is true that occasionally one pound coins are struck with a misaligned die axis, I have a number of them from various years, and the errors range between 5 and 15 degrees, so they do exist. Having said that, from the photo supplied I am not convinced that your coin is genuine and I would like to see more detail. Regarding value, such errors do not seem to be very highly sought after by collectors so I would suggest you don't hand in your notice yet...

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Let's assume for a moment,that this coin actually isn't a fake.If that were the case,do you think that the miss alignment,would give it any real significant value ?.

Not really a useful assumption - there are so many forgeries around of £1 coins that you can 99% say that a misalignment = a fake.

I agree, with the proviso that if the forgers were so careless as to get the obverse and reverse misaligned, there would very probably be other giveaway signs of fakery, such as a blurred strike, or an incorrect reverse pattern for the year.

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A big thanks to all,for you replies.After several attempts,the following pictures,are the best that my lower end camera,could manage,i'm afraid.

or an incorrect reverse pattern for the year.

After reading your reply,i checked out the Royal Mint website,and this coin is in fact,a fake.The reverse should be three lions,for that particular year (1997).

Other than that,i don't know how the vast majority of people could tell,that this coin isn't actually a genuine one.To me,it just looks like any other well circulated 90's coin.

post-1987-1247741237_thumb.jpg

post-1987-1247741274_thumb.jpg

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A big thanks to all,for you replies.After several attempts,the following pictures,are the best that my lower end camera,could manage,i'm afraid.

After reading your reply,i checked out the Royal Mint website,and this coin is in fact,a fake.The reverse should be three lions,for that particular year (1997).

Other than that,i don't know how the vast majority of people could tell,that this coin isn't actually a genuine one.To me,it just looks like any other well circulated 90's coin.

That's what the forgers rely on - public ignorance. Also, if you fake a coin with the wrong reverse, you could always try and claim that you haven't actually forged a coin of the realm (not sure if it would stand up in court though - the defence that is, not the coin :lol: )

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What propositions are in place to combat the fake coins if i may ask ? It seems to be quite a problem with the pound coins.

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What propositions are in place to combat the fake coins if i may ask ? It seems to be quite a problem with the pound coins.

I'd say, not a lot! If the public are willing to circulate them (they're only tokens after all) it's probably not worth the bother tracking them all down. :lol: Seriously though, I haven't the faintest idea.

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Obviously they are withdrawn from circulation when spotted by the authorities. But the main thrust seems to be catching the forgers. The number of fake £1s in circulation is pretty large (maybe 4% of all in circulation?) and very few people are going to bother pointing it out and losing a quid for their trouble.

When suspicious most people just get rid asap. I have a fairly representative selection of counterfeit ones. A nice piece of lead painted gold for 1989, example for every year between 1993-97 except 1995 and a full set for 1999 - 2006. When I find a new one I ditch the most realistic keeping those with the wrong reverse or particularly poor castings in preference! My silver 2002 example (with test marks) and the lead one are my current favourites!

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