Even with the shaky bad photos, you can clearly see the font is different and the pattern on the turtles back / bubbles around it has several distinct differences in them vs the orgional, they are close but are not 100% correct this is a fake or the NZ mint has 2 x different dies striking these coins. If they were in fact struck with the same die they would be identical regardless the thickness of the coin. this is just what I can see :
Fake as . We do not let errors like that out of our mint. You can not have been stacking long as when you get an under weight coin the first thought should be FAKE not error .
I'll look into this and go over the coins carefully and better photos will come probably after Christmas., just been a bit slack as it's a lot of hassle for me to dig those coins up. I have receipts from the mint for both coins and the reason I didn't return the underweight one is because I really like it and no one else has it, well at least one other person does. I've been stacking for two years. I wish I had keep emails from the mint requesting the return of that coin mentioning production error. (I'll look for them) If someone out there works for the NZ mint you should have some real info (a bit embarrassing) about what went on here. If it is really a fake try find another one?? Why make a fake a 3oz coin when the original is 5oz? Why go to the effort for a 2015 Niue turtle, not exactly a special coin. Doesn't make sense to me and how would fakes end up with the NZ mint and then sold to clients.
The 3 ozzers in the world, do they tend to have the same diameter as the 5 ozzers? For ex, the 1.5 ozzers from the RCM are just thicker 1 ozzers / same tubes.
Funny, I have a 5 oz Panda with a 3 oz weight. And the one I have is a fake. (Very good one) I hope all the best for that Turtle!
It's a weird case, if the coin would be faked on purpose, then that 3 instead of 5 oz is probably worlds worst faking attempt. It also wouldn't make sense since this coin is nothing special. A production error that I can think of would be minting a die on a wrong blanc. The radius of the 3 oz is the same as the purposed 5 oz. If this Mint would produce other coins, 3 oz, then this could be an explanation. It's hard to judge the pics, but minting on a thinner than configured-for piece of metal might cause metal reformations that cause visual differences. Hence my earlier question.
