ChardsCoinandBullionDealer

I guess you were being facetious / humorous when you said I'd be shocked.
No, just resigned, frustrated, ...
At least @HerefordBullyun's humour helps to lighten moments like this.
Tell the Royal Mint, that if you wanted chips, you could you got your coin from @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer, and got fish and chips across the road at the award winning Harrowside Chippy.
On another bright note, this looks good:

I got this from an award wining local dealer.
If anyone cares to guess, please don't hold back.
😎
P.S. You can "see more" panthers today in Blackpool than in London Zoo.

Well, it's a lot easier that trying to swim with skis on.😎

I guess you don't know about this:
2. The Committee, on the basis of a Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, took evidence from the Royal Mint and the Treasury on:
the deteriorating financial performance of the Royal Mint in recent years; the control weaknesses that gave rise to thefts of banknotes from the Royal Mint in 1997 and 2001; the allegations of improper payments by the Royal Mint; and the applicability of 'Crown immunity' to the Royal Mint. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmpubacc/588/58803.htm
I have mentioned the banknote thefts on one of our websites previously, but can't find it quickly.
I will suggest @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer add a blog about it.😎
P.S. I guess their vault is now quite secure.

Anyone interested in a sneak preview?

"Durham" variety! 😎

Another counterfeit I saw recently:

and the obverse:

I thought I had done a Niton XRF test on this, but can't find it. I will add it later.
Here they are:

So gold content about 89.3% instead of 91.66%.
Even some of our competitors would get this right! 😎

1902 Edward VII Silver Crown
Another fake from China:

and the Obverse:

The blowhole to the right of Edward's chin looks like a casting flaw, although I would have thought these fakes were struck rather than cast. I might need to book a holiday research trip to China to see if I can visit a few of their factories to find out.
Of course, the "coin" contained no silver, as shown on this Niton XRF test:

I think I mis-recorded the 2nd Zinc reading as 203 instead of 263
So, approximately
Copper 60%
Zinc 26%
Nickel 9%
Manganese 2%
The eagle-eyed might spot this does not total 100%, but there were a few traces of other metals which I have not shown.
The 1934 crown and two other "silver coin" fakes I tested had a very similar composition.
 

When Doug, our (nearly) tame photographer created the above image, it seems he was having too much fun to stop, so:

With the comment:
Breaking News....Downing St cabinet meeting..."Whats a Bajillion?" Boris: "I dunno but it sounds big" Everybody: "Yeah lets do it" 😎

Ah!.
Doug must have forgotten to shoot the edges.
I think it says 
" II 國度的美麗與保護 "
but I will check.
Being serious again for a few seconds, yes I think the edge is lettered. Quite a few people at @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer have had a look at these already, and I heard some approving comments about edges, although it might have been about different coins.
 

We have seen increasing quantities and variety of fake coins , made in China, of many different types of coins, for about the last 10 years.
Producing replica / counterfeit / imitation coins, and almost anything else, seems to be big business in China.
China does not participate in copyright, design, or patent protection, with a few possible exceptions. All this is apparently perfectly legal in China, and almost certainly encouraged by the Chinese government, possibly to undermine western democracies, or as part of an economic trade war.
Mostly we have encountered these from owners who have bought one or more on ebay, or sometimes from the guy in the pub, an "antique shope", flea market, car boot sale, Amazon, Facebook, and the rest. Sometimes they have paid hundreds of pounds, thinking they were getting some rare coin at a bargain price, others have paid £20, £10 ore even less, and are still happy when told they have a fake, even when told that they could have got the same thing, generally via Ali Express, for a few pound, even taking postage into account. I am usually too polite to tell them bluntly how stupid I think they have been, and it is frustrating that mostly they are not interested in buying any genuine coins, but still expect to pick my / our brains free of charge.
For many years, I / we have been highlighting some fake coins on our websites, for a number of reasons, mainly for education, but in an attempt to help spread some knowledge and experience, hoping it might help some people from being ripped off. This is time consuming, and I have not always had enough spare time to do it, until the last year or two.
In recent months, I had been thinking about buying a selection of modern Chinese fake coins from China, but was spurred on by a topic post about a month ago about 1841 fake gold sovereigns being offered, and sold, on ebay. I contributed to that discussion. I received a package of about 30 to 40 various fakes last week, in one delivery consolidated from 9 different suppliers. Somehow I seem to have missed the 1841 sovereign off the orders, so I need to get back on and add one.
A TSF member asked if I would start a separate topic here, so here goes.
The two posts I have already added, under Today I Received, were:
A 1933 Penny
 
and a 1934 Crown:
I will be adding information such as the cost from China, plus notes about reseller prices in the UK, and probably a few choice comments about the greediness, lack of ethics of the advertisers / sellers, and possibly about the buyers, all while trying to keep it polite, which could require considerable restraint.
As always, feedback, questions, and comments are welcome.
🙂

I am sure ebay don't care, they make profit out of them, and it would cost resources to police their listings, unless someone complains, but even then, they still don't care. I suspect most ebay sellers with fakes know that they are selling are fakes.
Fakes are definitely worth studying, especially if you don't want to end up owning any you paid a genuine price for.
This old (2009) page mentions Ken Peters of The Counterfeit Coin Club:
https://24carat.co.uk/frame.php?url=fakepoundcoins.html
Although I do not know if he  / they are still around.
In that sense, many people do have a collection of fake coins.
The thefakepoundcoindatabase does list other coins on its database. At least I think so from seeing a 7 sided Flopsy Bunny on its front page. 😎
Even though the RM lost its "sovereign" legal case, it does not mean that just anyone can make a sovereign without some legitimate cover, without risking prosecution for forgery or fraud. If it looked like a genuine UK gold sovereign, it would certainly be hard to defend.
China, and a few other countries do not care about counterfeiting or copying, indeed it is possibly state sponsored or even subsidised.
 

I certainly will.
They will also get added to the Chards website in blogs about fakes, plus some YouTube videos, all of which take time to do well.
My entries here are quite brief.
I have just started the new topic here:
 

That's a nice compliment, and a good question.
We have been asked before, see below:
 
 
It's overdue time we had a Photographing Coins blog / info page on chards.co.uk
@ChardsCoinandBullionDealer
It might help to stop some of our less ethical competitors "stealing" our images.
😎

1934 George V Wreath Crown - The Key Date - 932 Mintage - Fabulous Toning

and the Obverse:

With slight cabinet marks, but...
Chinese Fake!
😎
 
 I received a request / suggestion to create a new topic for the series of Chinese fakes, and will add further examples there:
 
 

That sounds like a good analysis.
I wonder what the bookies' odds are?
@ChardsCoinandBullionDealer could run a poll on it.

Hi,
It seems you are in a similar-ish position to what I was some 30 years ago.  Back then I started making very small and modest investments into the stock market via a Personal Equity Plan, the earlier version of what is now an ISA (individual Savings Account).
I just kept plugging away at that as my finances permitted and have done OK. 
I have only recently started to get into gold to divesify away from the stock market.
My advice to anyone starting out is make sure you have 3 to 6 months of cash saved in case of emergencies (for the garden fence, new boiler, roof problem, etc.) then start off investing slowly but surely in what you can when you can.  Don't go all in on anything and diverify.  @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer has some good advice about buying PM's at a low premium as an investment.  The 'monevator' website is a good source on investing, especially low cost tracker funds. 
Think long term and don't worry about price volatility in the short term, whatever you invest in.  Best of luck.  🐢🍀

Hello!
First post so please be gentle!
I recently purchased several pre-owned sovereigns from a very reputable bullion dealer I'm sure you've all heard of. One of the coins looks visibly thicker than the others. I'm new to this and just getting into testing/measuring everything etc - if I'm using the correctly terminology, the field of the coin sits quite deep within the edge/rim. It weighs 7.97 grams and I even did a specific gravity test for the first time earlier - that came in at 18.1 using distilled water and a bit of thread to submerge it.
On the Queen's head side, the rim is even. However, on the Pistrucci side, it doesn't look centred so the rim is very thin on one side and gets thicker as it goes around if that makes sense! I'm a hobbiest 3D artist so I did a quick render to better illustrate this because my phone camera is pretty terrible! There is also a close-up shot of the coin taken through a loupe.
I feel pretty confident it's gold based on all of the tests (not magnetic, the ping sound is the same as the others, correct weight etc) but the thickness, depth of the edge and offset is troubling me. Any thoughts would be welcome!
Thanks in advance,
John

Thanks for the reply, Lawrence! I registered on your website a couple of weeks ago and fully intend to make a purchase or two in the near future. It's really heartening to read you have such an open and honest approach to the way you deal with customers.
Given that I have nothing bad to say about the "very reputable bullion dealer I'm sure you've all heard of", I don't mind mentioning that it was from Atkinson's. I have no complaints with them at all but I'll definitely give Chards a go for my next purchase.
Many thanks,
John

I guess you were looking at this page:
https://www.chards.co.uk/1915-gold-20-corona-austrian/1721
If I tag @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer into this thread, someone might add a translation to the page! 
I hope it doesn't mean that Franz Joseph was HUNG, or even "well hung" 🙂
Similarly here: https://www.chards.co.uk/1915-gold-one-ducat-austrian-coin/692
It is quite common for smaller size denominations to have shorter legends then their larger counterparts.
Size does matter after all!
 

so this arrived today from @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer so my Sovereign journey will have at least some sort of context 😄
 

The Royal Mint have now amended their website...

 

This happens a lot, especially with incorrect mintage figures. Whenever the Royal Mint make a mistake, people ask us about it, and often assume we are wrong. We always take the time to explain to collectors how their misunderstanding has arisen. 

@ChardsCoinandBullionDealer had a customer enquiry for the one ounce gold coin today, he did not want the fifty pence, only the one ounce Team GB Olympic one ounce gold.

Big dog...

... and a load of bull (OK, Ox)

The bite test, on a Gold bar:

New One Ounce Gold Coin - Team GB Olympic Fifty Pence!

Struck in one ounce of 916 red gold.
Could be worth more than the Key Gardens coin!
☺️
Kew Gardens even!