The European Union’s executive arm, the Commission (EC), wants to allow member states to use a new weapon in the fight against fake euros: fake euros.

In an announcement made on Tuesday, the EC proposed a series of laws aimed at strengthening the authorities in the fight against forgery. The keystone of the package was a law obliging banks to check for fake euro coins and notes themselves.

But to make sure those checks are effective, the EC proposed a second law allowing banks to transport fake coins and notes themselves, so that their checking machines can learn to tell good money from bad. (more…)

By Michael Fazzari for Numismaster

One of the first things many authenticators look for on U.S. coins they examine is the presence of metal flow. This characteristic provides a good indication that the coin was made using dies. Forty or so years ago, this was virtually enough proof that a coin was genuine because at that time, most counterfeits were made by casting.

Even by the early 1970s, years after die-struck fakes had appeared, the majority of struck counterfeit coins showed little evidence of metal flow lines. In fact, most struck counterfeits of the day were similar to castings, having weak, mushy details.

It’s not that simple anymore. Authenticating a coin by metal flow alone is down-right ignorant. That’s because, over time, struck counterfeits began to show traces of flow lines, and even duplicated much of the die polishing lines found on genuine specimens. Today, there are many die-struck counterfeits that almost defy detection.

By Richard Giedroyc for Numismaster

Most world coin collectors will sooner or later come into contact with counterfeit coins of the Chinese Empire and from the period of the republic. Coin dealer Stephen Album’s comments on finding these coins for sale in markets throughout the Peoples’ Republic of China have been published in this column in the past.

There are two types of counterfeit coins, contemporary and modern. Contemporary counterfeits are of more interest academically since they were produced to deceive merchants and consumers when spent. Modern counterfeits of collector coins are produced for a different reason, that reason being because coin collectors pay a premium for certain genuine older coins for their collections.

Up until recently, the majority of Chinese counterfeit currently appearing in markets are coins that are modern copies of earlier issues coveted by collectors. Now, however, current legal tender coins of the PRC are being counterfeited as well. And, it appears to be big business.

Posted from Robert Matthews Coin Authentication

Respected Celtic coin specialist dealer, Chris Rudd, has posted on the news section of his website details of fake trophy type gold quarter staters that are currently circulating. He has posted photographs of five examples of these counterfeits and details of Celtic coin expert, Dr. Philip de Jersey’s opinion of these coins.

Dr. de Jersey is quoted as saying, “A number of near-identical trophy type quarter staters have appeared on the market in recent months. All are from the same pair of dies and I am sure that they are modern forgeries.” Among the points made by Dr. de Jersey are:

An unusual auction took place earlier this year. The sale featured a number of very high-grade early large cents, some with remarkable provenances going back to some of the most famous large cent collections ever formed. Yet they brought only a couple thousand dollars apiece. Even an MS63 example of a very rare variety of 1793 chain cent brought only $3,600. How did this happen?

The pieces being sold were electrotypes, copies made of some of the finest genuine large cents in existence. The auction was that of the Early American Coppers (EAC) club, an organization of half cent and large cent specialists, and the pieces had been properly catalogued as being electrotypes. The sale of these pieces raises a few questions. Why would anyone pay thousands of dollars for what are essentially counterfeit coins? How did the manufacturers of these pieces have access to the clearly amazing genuine samples they had copied? What is the point in collecting and studying these so-called coins?