Friday, January 18, 2019

1/18/2019 Report - How To Identify Fake Coins. Palm Beaches. Obstructions Causing Cuts. Vero Coin Show This Weekend.


Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Palm Beach Yesterday (Thursday)
Photo by Joe D.
As you can see, there are no cuts on this stretch of beach.  That is the kind of thing I've been seeing lately.


Palm Beaches Erosion Yesterday.
Photo by Joe D.
Besides the small cut, there is another difference in this picture - the rocks.  As is often the case, rocks, sea walls, jetties, inlets and other obstacles to the natural flow of water and sand will produce erosion where there would otherwise be none.

Erosion Around Rocks.

You can tell that this is sand that has not been there long.  Notice the sea weed.

The erosion is enough to wash out some coins and other things that were lost in the accumulated sand but would likely produce nothing much old.

Here are Joe's finds.

Finds by Joe D.

Thanks for the beach and find photos Joe.

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If you've been detecting very long you've probably found at least a few fake or reproduction coins.  They can be confusing at first.  The first one I found took a lot of time in cleaning and research before I learned what it actually was.

Identifying fakes can be more difficult when coins are heavily encrusted.  They can be completely  covered, or nearly so, and you can spend a lot of time carefully cleaning them before you learn that you have a fake.

After you've seen a few, you will be able to spot some fakes at first glance, but others, especially types of coins you've never seen before, can still be difficult.

If you've seen enough beach-seasoned Spanish reales, you can probably easily identify most fakes.

I found a good web site that tells how to identify forged ancient coins, but it will also help you with cobs and other types of coins.

Here are four methods of creating fakes that are described on the web site.


  1. Casting - Molten medal is poured in to a mold made from an original coin. This method methed is as old as counterfeiting and forging.


  2. Electrotyping - An original coin is impressed into fine clay onto which metal is electroplated creating a shell with a good impression of the coin. This method was invented in the mid-19th century.


  3. Die striking - Dies are produced produced on which an image of a coin has been replicated and the false coin is struck. This is a version of how most genuine ancient coins were minted.


  4. Tooling - Engraving details either by hand or machine. Normally used to alter a coin to either improve its details, or to alter design from a common type to a rare type, but sometimes to improve details on a fake to make it look more genuine.


Nearly all fake ancient coins are made by one of these methods so sometimes combining two of them as when a cast fake is tooled to remove evidence or casting.


One way to identify a fake, is to test the type of metal.  Most fakes are not made of the right type of metal.  All of the fake reales that I've found were made of some metal other than silver.

Many fakes are plated.  That often provides the first clue.   If fake has been in the surf, the plating can be worn off or starting to wear off.

You can also often tell a fake by the amount of wear or lack of wear.  But that means you are familiar with normal wear patterns.

If you want to learn to identify fakes, you will want to use the following link.

http://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/fakes/cast.htm

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Captain Jonah sent an email reminding me about the Vero coin show this weekend.

The 55th annual Vero Coin Show is approaching fast.  The show is being held Jan 19 & 20, 2018 at the Vero Beach Community Center.  The address is 2266 14th Ave, Vero Beach, Fl.  We still have a few bourse tables left so if you are interested please contact us.  This is a very busy show with attendance averaging around 1,200 people.

This is the perfect show to sell your coins or buy new ones.  Our dealers have been with us for a long time and are willing and able to help you any way they can.

For further information please contact Scott Anderson at verocoinshow@gmail.com

Here is the link.

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Nothing new to report with the weather or beach conditions.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net