Genuine British Sovereign and Bolivian Gold?

[beacon]

Saw these two for spot price at a pawn shop here in Colombia. Might pick them up.

One is a British Sovereign. The other (after researching), is a Bolivia "7 Gramos 1952 Revolution" round (.900 purity).

The shop also had a Colombia "Cinco Pesos Stonecutter" (the one with the miner chiseling). That one is the same as the weight and fineness as a British Sovereign. Did not take a photo of that one because I'm 100% certain that one was legit. 

Between the Colombia Cinco Pesos and the British Sovereign, wonder which one would be more desirable. Wish I could buy all three, but budget wise I can only buy two for now (assuming they are genuine). 

Any red flags these two below might not be genuine gold? I've heard lots of fake Sovereigns are around. Thanks in advance.

[Silverlocks]

Marching powder jokes aside, I think the sovereign is most likely to be genuine.  Although the pictures aren't really good enough to say for certain, the coin doesn't appear to have the major telltales.  I've cribbed a few pictures of the more common telltales off the interwebs below.  Note that there are more sophisticated forgeries around, and some years of double and quint sovs (1887 in particular) have quite significant numbers of forgeries in circulation.  However, sophisticated forgeries are largely going to be of rarer coins with significant numismatic value, so less likely to be found on an ordinary, garden variety sov.

1908 isn't a particularly rare year, and this coin is in fairly worn condition, so there doesn't seem a lot of reason to suspect it's a forgery.  As long as it weighs 7.93 to 7.98 grams (this was the allowable wear before they were taken out of circulation) and has the right dimensions (22.05mm wide, 1.52mm thick) then it's most likely to be real.

I don't really know enough about the Bolivian coins to pass an opinion, but I suggest you look up the weights and dimensions, and if they fit then the coins are most likely to be real.  Without using Tungsten, it's not really possible to make fake gold coins in the right dimensions.  Maybe do a little google-fu to see if there are any records of modern forgeries of those coins.  If not, and the coins measure right, then they are most likely to be real.

Of course, this is not legal or financial advice, and the pictures below are by no means representative of the whole gamut of potential forgeries.  You're going to have to do a bit of your own homework, but that's my two bob worth.

This one has poor definition in the casting.  If you take a look at the rim, it's quite blobby and poorly defined compared to a genuine sovereign.  This is a sign of loss of definition in the casting process.  Note that not all forged sovereigns will exhibit this, but this is a common giveaway for cast replicas.

With this one, you can see the grain of the casting sand in the moulding.  The texture is quite different from a genuine sov.

Another common giveaway of some forged sovereigns is a maker's mark, usually in the fields on the obverse or on the effigy's neck.  This is characteristic of what is known as Jewellers' coins, which are gold coins sold for savings or other things like dowry payments in various middle eastern countries (I think you're probably in the wrong part of the world for these anyway).  They emerged from time to time in response to shortages in the real thing, with the maker's marks added to skirt around counterfeiting laws.  For the same reason, often they have year/mint combinations that didn't exist.

Some modern replicas have a completely different effigy.  These are usually quite obvious if you can compare them to a picture of a real sovereign.

Edited June 16, 2023 by Silverlocks

[stefffana]

13 hours ago, beacon said:

18 hours ago, beacon said:

Saw these two for spot price at a pawn shop here in Colombia. Might pick them up.

One is a British Sovereign. The other (after researching), is a Bolivia "7 Gramos 1952 Revolution" round (.900 purity).

The shop also had a Colombia "Cinco Pesos Stonecutter" (the one with the miner chiseling). That one is the same as the weight and fineness as a British Sovereign. Did not take a photo of that one because I'm 100% certain that one was legit. 

Between the Colombia Cinco Pesos and the British Sovereign, wonder which one would be more desirable. Wish I could buy all three, but budget wise I can only buy two for now (assuming they are genuine). 

Any red flags these two below might not be genuine gold? I've heard lots of fake Sovereigns are around. Thanks in advance.

BTW: Ending up a few others coins instead. Cheers.

Hi, @beacon.

I would not buy the sovereign. 

I would buy Cinco Pesos Colombia and the bolivian medal/token.

The bolivian one look great in your pictures, I am sure it is 100% legit.

I am sorry, I have seen just now your post, so maybe my advice it is already too late.

Cheers!

Stefan.