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Coin counterfeiting occurs regularly in the antique coin market, but there are various modern forgeries that make it into general circulation. [1] Counterfeit antique coins are generally made to a very high standard so that they can fool collectors, this is not easy and many coins will still stand out.
[edit] Coins in circulation
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Image of a real
pound coin on top of a fake, The one pound coin is a very common target for counterfeiting
Defective milling and letters on counterfeit coin
Counterfeit coins made to be of face value and destined for general circulation amongst the public have been made by criminals for hundreds of years. For modern coins destined for general circulation the most common method of protection from forgeries is the use of bi-metallic coins which are made of two different metals that are both a different colour, which can make counterfeiting it very hard. The most common way of forging these coins is to change the area that should be a different colour by painting it, however the paint is often easy to scratch off and the coins will soon look very crude once worn. An increasing number of coins are cast from the same composition alloy as the real coin, but have poor reproduction of details such as the milling on the side of the coin and the stamped lettering. Initially when the euro was introduced into Europe, the number of counterfeits was extremely low, however the number has increased massively in recent years. [2] The high and increasing number of fake euro coins in circulation in 2004 lead to the creation of a Technical and Scientific Center for the coordination of technical actions to protect euro coins against counterfeiting. [3]. In all it it is estimated that in Europe 1.7% of all Pound coins and 373,719 euro coins (of differing denominations) in circulation are Counterfeit [4]
[edit] References
- C. R. Gagg and P. R. Lewis , Counterfeit coin of the realm – review and case study analysis, Second International Conference on Engineering Failure Analysis (ICEFA-11), Toronto, Canada, Sept. 2006, Engineering Failure Analysis, Vol 14, No 6, 1144 -1152, 2007.
- Forensic Materials Engineering: Case studies, Lewis, PR, Gagg, C and Reynolds, K, CRC Press (2004).
- ^ Coin Counterfeiting, Counterfeit Coins(2007-26-09)
- ^ Counterfeit Coin Newsletter
- ^ EU Crackdown, Counterfeit Coins(2007-26-09)
- ^ Counterfeit coin newsletter
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