Counterfeit Gold Coins – Types Of
In the world of counterfeit gold coins there are several types that exist, and there is probably someone out there right now trying to come up with a new way to counterfeit gold coins. Being that gold coins have not been the common currency of the United States now for quite some time, detecting counterfeit gold coins is becoming a much less common ability.
Old Types Of Counterfeit Gold Coins.
The majority of old counterfeit gold coins are exactly what you might think; gold coins that are not gold, or at least not pure gold, or even the purity of gold that they are supposed to be. Any of these shortcomings could get a batch of gold coins labeled as counterfeit gold coins.
You see, it was not always government mints that would produce gold coins. Companies would produce gold coins for pay. Banks would strike gold coins for wealth storage, even a blacksmith could make you a gold coin if you had the gold. So testing for counterfeit gold coins was an inexact science.
Back in the days of cowboy movies and loose scripts, you would often see John Wayne or some other character bite a gold coin to check for authenticity. Counterfeit gold coins that were made of brass or other alloys would be substantially harder than real gold coins and by this simple test many counterfeit gold coins could be detected.
John Wayne Could Detect Counterfeit Gold Coins Back In The Day.
Counterfeit Gold Is Just Part Of Counterfeit Gold Coins.
Once gold coins faded out of circulation in the 1930’s, at least in America anyway, a new market for counterfeit gold coins was born. When the Gold Eagle coins and Gold Double Eagle coins were called in and Federal Reserve Notes were handed out instead, the value of gold was immediately raised 75% and the old gold coins were melted down.
Enter counterfeit gold coins of the American collectible variety. When gold was revalued, the gold in the coin was now substantially higher than the twenty dollar face value of a Gold Double Eagle. So, counterfeit gold coins could actually be a real US Mint Struck gold coin, if it was made to be something that it wasn’t.
Since the US Government had made rules about who could have how much gold and how much they could have, the old rules went out the window. The old rules about money no longer applied to “rare†gold coins, and therefore rare gold coins became a new market for counterfeit gold coins.
This Is Perhaps The Rarest Of Twenty Dollar Gold Eagles.Counterfeit Gold Coins Often Copy This Particular Coin.
The US Mints kept exacting records of the gold coins which they produced. They knew how many of each coin was produced at each US Mint. Exact records were not kept, however, of how many of these coins were melted down, and there were no records kept regarding where each coin to be melted was originally minted. Therefore, there are some really rare gold coins out there, and there are some really really rare gold coins out there. Time became the factor in sorting out common from rare gold coins.
Today, rare gold coins can fetch into the millions of dollars. This being said, you can see the potential to counterfeit gold coins that have a very valuable status in the rare gold coin world. And counterfeit gold coins they do, China has a massive counterfeit coin industry that is growing be leaps and counterfeit bounds annually. Some of the best counterfeit gold coins come from China, but many of the best counterfeit gold coins were produced right here in the USA.
Ways To Turn Genuine Gold Coins Into Counterfeit Gold Coins: Mint Mark Changing.
Earlier I mentioned that there were a bunch of US Mints making real gold coins. At the time, with the exception of the Us Mint in Philadelphia, each US Mint struck into their coins a code in the form of a letter or two that would distinguish at which US Mint the coin was produced. This little letter code is called a mint mark.
The Mint Mark For The San Francisco Mint Is An “S”. To Create Some Counterfeit Gold Coins, You May Either Remove Or Change The Mint Mark.
Believe it or not, the little mint mark on a gold coin can be worth tens and tens of thousands of dollars. The right mint mark on the right gold coin can make you a millionaire, the same mint mark on a different gold coin means you have to go to work tomorrow.
As you may have already deduced, changing a mint mark, or even deleting a if you want to counterfeit a Philadelphia Mint gold coin, can mean big dollars and big profits if you can get away with creating a counterfeit gold coin out of the correct original gold coin.
Another Way To Turn Genuine Gold Coins Into Counterfeit Gold Coins: Script Changing.
From time to time a Mint would change or alter a coin die slightly, or one would break and have to be replaced. This would sometimes result in a batch of coins being produced that were very similar, but quite unlike the other gold coins when seen through the exacting eyes of a numismatist ( a person who studies coins).
Sometimes A Gold Coin Is Particularly Rare Because Of A Script Error Or Unusual Choice. Counterfeit Gold Coins Are Sometimes Created By Altering The Script Of A Coin.
Much like changing a mint mark, changing the type of seven used in the date, or making a similar change can create a counterfeit coin out of what was once a true product of the United States Mint.
The world of American rare gold coin buying is quite full of details, and some of those details may be counterfeit. To Discuss owning American rare gold coins in depth, please contact a Senior Analyst at ITM Trading.
