Today we have a piece which was inspired by the Sadigh Gallery in New York, and we are going to talk about fake coins. There are many people around the world who love to collect old, antique coins, and in all honesty this is big business. The Sadigh Gallery have an exhibition which they are planning which is going to feature a wide array of old coins from all over the world, from ancient cultures and from civilizations which no longer exist.
To all of you who enjoy collecting coins or who are thinking about getting started in the world of coin collecting, here is why you have to make sure that you know what you are buying, and why fakes are something to watch out for.
Advanced Technology
For many years now the art world has been blighted by those who copy art and sell it as the real thing, yet coins were not always something which could be faked. The reason for this is because in the main, the rudimentary methods by which ancient coins were made has been tough to repeat. Strangely, we need cutting edge, modern technology, to recreate the basic ways in which coins were produced in the past. We have that tech now and it has become easier than ever before to create fake coins which look and feel like the real thing.
Big Business
The production of fake coins is big business and those who are doing it are making hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result. In the beginning we would see low cost coins being faked, perhaps coins which a collector would pay $20 for. The reason why they focused on this price range was because there is less suspicion at that price mark and therefore less investigation. Now however we have seen evidence of some incredibly rare and pricy pieces being faked, which just goes to show the audacity which these fraudsters have.
Amateur Collectors
In many cases the people who are recreating these coins know more about the coin and its history than the collector does, because of the fact that so many collectors are amateurs. They know this and that is why they are happy to flood the market with fakes which look like the real thing, yet aren’t. This is again why anyone who likes to collect coins has to be careful when they are buying from stores, markets and especially online.
The best thing to do to avoid fakes is to know exactly what you are looking for. You should have a clear understanding of what the weight, the look and the color of the coin, you should know what metal to look for and you should also have a very clear understanding of what markings to look for. Ultimately the best advice to give is that if you are ever unsure about whether or not a coin is genuine, the best thing to do is leave it.
