Sovereign
The Sovereign is the world’s most counterfeited gold coin. It is estimated that 50% of the new (Elizabeth II) and 30% of the old variety sovereigns in circulation are fakes. Why are they so popular with counterfeiters? For 150 years, up until the mid 1970’s, it was the most popular gold coin in the world. The Sovereign spread with the British Empire and became widely known and recognised. It was, and still is particularly popular in the Middle East and India. In recent years the high premium charged by the Bank of England for genuine Sovereigns has been an added incentive to large scale counterfeiting.
Double Eagle ($20) and Eagle ($10) There are very large numbers of fake Double Eagles (U.S. $20) and Eagles ($10) in circulation. Again this is because they are popular coins that have been around for a long time and because they command high premiums. Although many fake Eagles and Double Eagles have been produced in the U.S. The majority originate from Italy and the Middle East. The quality varies from crude, easily identified fakes to excellent die struck examples.
100 Corona
There have been reports of fake 100 Coronas – mostly the Hungarian rather than the Austrian variety.
4 Ducat
Some forgeries have been reported.
Krugerrand
The Krugerrand is becoming an increasingly popular coin to fake. Because it sells at a low premium it is only a proposition to make fake Krugerrands from common metals – usually lead, brass or copper. It is popular because it is widely known and accepted – often with only a cursory look! The incidence of Krugerrand fakes will probably grow with its popularity, there have been a few reports of forgeries of the fractional Krugerrands. As it is easier to fake small coins we would not be surprised to see more fakes of these coins.
Mexican 50 Peso
50 Pesos have been faked for the Latin American market. The distribution centre is said to be Curacao, with Argentineans being heavy buyers.
Maple Leaf
We have not uncovered any reports of fake Maple Leaf (Canadian $20) coins. The quality of minting of the Maple Leaf is excellent. This, together with its fineness of 999.0 makes it relatively more difficult to fake.
Credit Suisse 1 oz. bar
Although we have not uncovered any reports of fake bars of this particular type and size we cannot give it a good rating as bars are easier to fake than coins. There have been reports of other counterfeit gold bars.
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Most Common FAKE Gold Coins
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Posted - 01/02/2009 : 07:56:47
