Crusty old gold miners in Hollywood Westerns bit into gold to see if they’d found the real thing, but biting down on a possibly rare gold coin is no way to determine if it is genuine or counterfeit. Gold is softer than teeth, so sinking incisors into the precious metal can reveal the real thing, but coins are generally harder and teeth marks damage their value. The bite test also can deceive: Lead is even softer than gold. One of the 2,372 Brigham Young University students graduating this week is wrapping up his senior thesis on new methods for testing coins purported to be rare finds. Jeff Brown, who is completing a bachelor’s degree in physics, used a specialized X-ray machine and an electron microscope to study about 50 coins.

COLUMBUS (AP) — The sale of rare coins and other memorabilia should bring more than the $50 million the state gave a coin dealer convicted of stealing from the funds he managed for the workers compensation bureau, the broker handling the collection’s liquidation said today.

Tom Noe, a Republican fundraiser who was given the funds in 1998 and 2001 to invest in the coins and other items, was convicted of theft and other crimes and sentenced in November to 18 years in prison.

So far, the state has recovered about $42 million through sales of the investments, said Bill Brandt, president and CEO of Chicago-based Development Specialists Inc.

The European Central Bank’s latest report on euro note counterfeiting shows that “The 50-Euro was the most counterfeited banknote in the first half of 2007, accounting for around a half of the total counterfeits found in circulation.” Total number of fake euros found in the first half of 2007 was listed as 265,000, meaning fake 50-Euros seized numbered about 132,500 notes with a face value of 6,625,000 Euros. That’s $9,138,127.50 in today’s U.S. dollars. Actually, 265,000 out of about 11 billion notes in circulation isn’t bad.

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