Experts at the Society of Private and Pioneer Numismatists (SPPN) meeting settle four decades of uncertainty
A panel of leading numismatists determined the questionable 1853 United States Assay Office of Gold $20 proof, prooflike, and similar coins to be forgeries produced from transfer dies.
The panel’s discussion was the main program at the annual meeting of the Society of Private and Pioneer Numismatists held in Baltimore, Maryland Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 as part of the American Numismatic Association’s World Fair of Money.
The Transfer Die Forgeries first appeared during the late 1950’s, "discovered" by Paul Franklin through a bank teller in Arizona. Franklin and John J. Ford Jr. sold hundreds of these pieces throughout the 1960’s as genuine pieces struck in San Francisco by the U.S. Assay Office in 1853.
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Five people were arrested in Southern California earlier this week for allegedly counterfeiting between $5 and $6 million in phony $20s and $100s over the past two years.
Laserjet printers were apparently used to make the money, and it all happened within a residential home in Lawndale, California.
According to an Associated Press article, those arrested in included:
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A news article today recounted how China’s leading online game operator, The9 Ltd., will begin suspending the accounts of players who steal and then resell virtual coins used within the extremely popular and worldwide online game, World of Warcraft®.
With a world subscription base of over 10 million players who each pay a monthly fee, the news is positive for that particular online community. But what about the real world where coins and their holders are counterfeited and then sold?
In recent months, two of the top coin certification companies have issued consumer advisories regarding counterfeit replica coin holders used to help sell fake or counterfeit coins through online auctions such as eBay®.
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Making dough is common place in a pizza shop kitchen. Making fake dough, as in counterfeited $50 bills, is not so common.
Police arrested Frank Donato back in October of 2007. At the time, Fox News reported the owner of a Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., pizzeria was cooking up more than pizza.
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The number of counterfeit euro coins increased in 2007 by 29% over 2006. The European Commission reported 211,000 counterfeit coins were pulled from circulation by authorities compared to 163,800 in 2006.
The coin counterfeited the most was the 2-euro, which accounted for over 85% of the total.
Overall, approximately 585,000 counterfeit coins have been take out of circulation since the use of euro coins began back in 2002. Although the numbers would seem to appear alarming, the European Commission points out several positive factors:
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Today, Jan. 7, the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) has confirmed the existence of counterfeit replica holders.
NGC was founded in 1987 to objectively provide third party grades to coins. Coins sent to NGC are analyzed, graded, recorded and then encapsulated in tamper resistant, protective holders.
While there are several coin grading services in existence, NGC is considered to be one of the top two - PCGS being the other.
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Three Long Island 17-year old high school students are under arrest for printing counterfeit $10s, $20s and $50s from the back of a pickup truck.
Amazingly, police say ink jet printers were used to print the bills. The power source? A Radio Shack inverter plugged into the pickup truck’s cigarette lighter.
The average person could easily assume any teenager who used the bed of a truck as a factory floor and inkjet printers to output bogus bills would get caught and arrested in short notice time.
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There’s an absurd prickle to the mind upon first hearing someone is thrown into jail for trying to open a bank account with a fake $1M dollar bill.
It’s close to the same level of thinking as someone trying to pass off a video game token or 2007 penny for a million bucks to a rare coin dealer.
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The time, effort and expense of counterfeiting one dollar coins just doesn’t make sense.
It’s easy to at least understand a criminal’s motivation in counterfeiting rare and valuable coins. But the incentive to forge a daily and common circulating coin? It defies logic.
Yet, that’s exactly what happened with a New Zealand dollar coin. And there’s currently an investigation into counterfeit U.S. Presidential $1 coins, although it would boggle the mind if those were verified as fake.
The U.S. case has been covered and, so far, nothing is new. However, the New Zealand story is intriguing, although brief in detail.
New Zealand counterfeit dollar coin
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The verdict isn’t in on whether counterfeit coins were used earlier this month at a local McDonald’s restaurant in Macomb, Illinois.
The boy who used them was given the four Presidential $1 Coins as a gift from his grandparents. They were special proof versions, which are made for collectors, and have a current value of at least $14.95.
Proofs usually make ideal gifts for many children due to each coin’s mirror-like shine and unmatched detail. The boy, however, was apparently less intrigued and decided to spend them.
The unfolding of the 2007 Presidential Dollar counterfeit story
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