Scored a fake Sovereign...

To the sellers credit, it was quickly exchanged without issue for a genuine coin. However, I'm still left with that uneasy feeling...

Lesson for me (and others) is -

1) - Know the specs / dimensions of any coin you are buying.

2) - Own / have access to callipers and an accurate scale to check said coin/s.

3) - It doesn't matter who/where you are buying the coin from...

Visually the coin's strike /detail appeared to me to be correct. It's just that when I had it sitting next to the real thing, I noticed it was a little thicker than the real one. A quick investment in some digital callipers, and upon weighing the coin, I found it to be 1.76 mm thick rather than 1.52 mm and it was 7.76 grams v's 7.98.

A little more research confirmed that it was fake. The coin was a 1895 Jubilee head - only thing is the Jubilee head design ended in 1893.

Have you checked your coins lately?


Bill

 

You should have taken a pic for us to look at

 

I've got some pics. They are 2 MB though. Have to figure out how to make them small enough to upload.

Bill

 

I use paint, because it's on my computer and i cant be bothered getting anything better...haha Basically right click on the photo click edit, should open up paint, then either try saving the photo as a .jpeg if it is not already or click " image" its up the top, near file and view, then click on "Stretch or skew" and change the to boxes that say 100% to 50% and that will drop it down to 200kbish instead of 2mb : Goodluck!!

Edit: spelling

 

Yup just open up in paint and resize em. Or upload the image to imagshack or photobucket and paste the link so we can view them in their full 2mb glory

 

There's one view.

Bill

 

I suppose the Jubilee head does look a little rough at the bottom.

As I mentioned before, probably the major failure of the coin is that the Jubilee head ended in 1893. This is as you can see an 1895.

Oh and it showed in a SG test to be between 13 - 15 K gold as well.

Bill

 

It's a jewellers copy than

 

Possibly. But if a person wanted a Jewellers copy, I'm sure one could be purchased - at the right price.

If you pay full tote though, you wouldn't expect to get a copy for your money.

Bill

 

What is a jewellers copy?

Sounds counterfeit? Should be marked copy otherwise?

 

Made in the middle east , lots of jewellers over there used to make them
All the dealers I know melt them to take them out of circulation ,

 

Definatley ,if you paid for a real full sov you should not get a jewellers copy

 

+1 ^^^

 

Why is it called a jewellers copy instead of just a fake?

 

Because jewellers made them ,most of them have a jewellers mark on them to tell the difference
That's how gold was traded in the middle east

 

I appreciate your response SM, although I must say the word 'copy' implies (to me anyway) that it's a clone - a 1:1 replica, including content.

Not getting the content you expect is a bit like fraud?

If someone started making 50% silver ASE's and not marking them as a copy, what would we call that?

I guess it is a traditional term, but I don't like it

 

They are old copies ,not recent , if you wanted to purchase gold in the 50's-60's in the middle east
That's how it came

 

I'm very sorry to hear that you scored a fake Sovereign. It's good to hear that you 1) picked up on it and 2) the person you bought it off sorted it out no fuss.



If you aren't burned on the idea of stacking Sovereigns may I suggest getting some scales? I know I harp on about the Fisch set but the set that covers the full Sovereign also covers Krugerrands/AGE/Angels.

Old skool scales


Source: photographersdirect.com


More recent scales


Source: www.fisch.co.za

 

Hi Nugget,

Are the old fashion sovereign checkers OK for bullion sovs only or is it possible to put a numismatic sov through without marking in any way?

thanks,

 

Thanks for sharing this topic,goes to show we think we cover everything when buying,good also you where up on your jubilee dates.

Thanks