This coin was bought on the Internet at auction by my friend. He did not suspect anything and was completely sure that the coin was real. In this form, she lay with him for a year, until he showed it to one numismatist, who immediately said that this is not a real coin, but a copy from China. Such copies are brought in large numbers from China by unscrupulous sellers and are given out for real. Such deception is designed for beginning collectors, they can not distinguish a copy from the original coin. Over time, the upper layer of silver on such copies is erased and it becomes evident that the coin is made of brass and covered with a thick layer of silver. Have you met such fakes?
Very often on the streets of our city began to appear dubious people who offer to buy rare silver coins of Russia in tsarist times. Most likely these coins are of the same origin that your friend bought.
For buying coins, one's best bet is an established Local Coin Shop.
Unfortunately this is the way of the world at the moment with greedy people praying on the nieve. I have seen a lot of silver plated coins going through auctions at the moment with descriptions as the real deal and they are fetching three figure sums when these only cost a pittance. I personally have stopped buying silver coins from auctions unless I can handle the coin and examine it.
Just a side note, I always carry;
A neodymium magnet (15kg)
A jewellers loupe (20x magnification)
Pocket scales (accurate 0.001)
Vernier callipers (digital versions)
Numista.com has weights,dimensions and images of almost every coin made and this should help you avoid the fakes a little easier.
Yup that's a good one. What are the tell tale signs to look out for?
On that coin it has a thin patch of plate where the copper shows just to the left star above the crowned eagle and to the right of the date stamp.
This is a scary and sick trend happening in the stacking community! Thanks for sharing.
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Those are the "good fakes" as some of them are HIGHLY MAGNETIC! I went into an LCS and the owner showed me 2 coins that HE Bought from a walk in client, so no one is immune to buying a fake apparently!
I haven't seen any fakes personally, but I thank you for bringing this to my attention. I certainly will be on the lookout for such scams in the future. I had one incident where I bought from a supplier on Ebay and the envelope that was supposed to include the currency wasn't even sealed properly and nothing was in the package, so I paid for an empty package basically - truly a disappointment.
It's discouraging to see so many people abusing the free market with their ripoffs and scams. It makes me more skeptical of merchants in the long run.
Everything that comes out of China is a cheap knockoff! China has mastered the art of counterfeiting everything, From F-18 Super Hornets to silver coins! Lmao
Sorry about your friends loss. But this is why he should buy from reputable dealers not some where else. Are you sure the person who told your friend it is a fake is legitimate. Gold & Silver places look to buy cheap and sell high. Not a fan of older coins prefer the new ones right from the mints.
I'm a coin collector this is an unfortunate practice done with silver and gold coins. This really sucks hope your friend didn't lose too much cash.