Fake coins

Marcel Mitchel sent these images in. He said that he couldn’t determine if the coin pictured here was authentic or a counterfeit. He didn’t say if it was a detecting find or if he had acquired it in some other way.

At first sight the coin appears to be a gold half angel. It is of a type that was struck during the first coinage of Henry VIII. If it was genuine then it would be worth at least £2,000 to a collector who could afford such an expensive coin. Sadly, it is a fake.

I’m not sure of the manufacturer but examples are offered for sale in a number of places on the internet. One firm priced then at £5.39 each and another offered them at £4.50.

Similar ‘coins’ are offered for sale by Historic Royal Palaces at £4 with an informative booklet. Presumably, they will be sold at a number of different locations.

The excuse given for the manufacture of many fake coins is that they allow people to buy copies of things that would cost a great deal were they genuine. This is all well and good if they are marked as copies and/or kept in their original packaging. When they are unmarked (very often) or separated from their packaging and fall into other hands they are sometimes thought to be genuine. I call them all fakes and if was up to me I’d ban their manufacture.