20 franc gold coins faked ?

[pricha]

We often hear of faked sovereigns and US coins , but i'm not aware of counterfeited 20 franc coins as a major problem. Does any member know different ?   

[stefffana]

It is an example of 20 Francs Napoleon III recorded in Numista page, Modern fakes. https://en.numista.com/numisdoc/modern-fakes-151.html.

If it is one, for sure there are plenty around.

Cheers!

Stefan.

[RDHC]

1 hour ago, stefffana said:

It is an example of 20 Francs Napoleon III recorded in Numista page, Modern fakes. https://en.numista.com/numisdoc/modern-fakes-151.html.

If it is one, for sure there are plenty around.

Cheers!

Stefan.

Fascinating page. Thank you for posting it. Some comfort, I imagine, in that there are very few fake gold coins (if one does not collect silver ones). Also, apparently, no fake Victorian shield reverse sovereigns; again that is comforting, if an accurate reflection of the reality.

[CollectForFun]

3 hours ago, RDHC said:

Fascinating page. Thank you for posting it. Some comfort, I imagine, in that there are very few fake gold coins (if one does not collect silver ones). Also, apparently, no fake Victorian shield reverse sovereigns; again that is comforting, if an accurate reflection of the reality.

Come on, that's just totally random selection of several fake coins posted to Numista by a few of the users who happen to have them in their collection and bother to do so. By no means that's a complete list. Quite on the contrary - in my opinion, one must assume that fake exists for every coin of at least some relevance (and as Lawrence Chard documented in his thread on Chinese fakes, they even don't mind counterfeiting a completely irrelevant modern fantasy coin).

So rather be prepared for a fake of any gold coin, either a contemporary fake (which may even have the right gold content, lol) or a modern one.

Edited October 9, 2021 by CollectForFun

[RDHC]

1 hour ago, CollectForFun said:

Come on, that's just totally random selection of several fake coins posted to Numista by a few of the users who happen to have them in their collection and bother to do so. By no means that's a complete list. Quite on the contrary - in my opinion, one must assume that fake exists for every coin of at least some relevance (and as Lawrence Chard documented in his thread on Chinese fakes, they even don't mind counterfeiting a completely irrelevant modern fantasy coin).

So rather be prepared for a fake of any gold coin, either a contemporary fake (which may even have the right gold content, lol) or a modern one.

Yes, of course the page has great limitations, but the relative lack of gold fakes is still interesting even with such a small sample. I would not have thought it worth anyone's while to fake silver coins or cupro nickel or whatever, but clearly some do exactly that. As for English sovereigns, we know that fakes exist for rare years or mints for George V, for example, but I have never seen or heard of a fake shield reverse, even though there are great rarities amongst these earlier sovereigns that you would have thought would be tempting for someone to fake. It would be rash to assume that no fake shield reverse sovereigns  exist, but it would be extremely interesting and instructive. to see one. Now there is a bit of a challenge for someone (e.g. Lawrence Chard himself) with better knowledge and experience than I possess. 

[RDHC]

Just looked up Chards invaluable page on fakes/forgeries and there it is stated that platinum based forgeries of shield reverse sovereigns have been recorded for the period 1861-72, but no details are given, let alone photographs. I'd love see some photos, not because I doubt the author but simply to see how good these fakes might be compared to the quite intricately designed and minted original article.