The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 15, April 11, 2004, Article 10

COUNTERFEIT CHINESE CROWNS

  Roger deWardt Lane of Hollywood, Florida writes: "Every
  Monday, when I turn on my computer and look at my e-mail,
  I see the E-Sylum in the mail box.  After reading the few other
  items from groups I subscribe to, and deleting the one or two
  virus messages (already quarantined by my anti-virus software,
  I disconnect my dial up ISP connection and settle down to
  read your newsletter.  Then I save all of them in a E-sylum
  directory just in case I wish to go back for a link or a second
  read.

  Attached is a article I wrote for my local coin club,
  Ft.Lauderdale Coin Club. I had to 'pinch hit' for the Educational
  Numismatist and presented this paper at the club meeting."

  [Roger's paper is titled, "Two Thousand and Four down
  Counterfeit Lane".  Here are a some excerpts:

  "Steve pulled his auto into the Swap Shop parking lot just a
  minute after Roger.  About two weeks ago, they had seen an
  unusual counterfeit mule crown composed of a Queen Victoria
  Old Head obverse c.1900, paired with a Bahamas 1966
  two-dollar reverse. Both of the genuine coins were minted
  by the Royal Mint London. The counterfeit mule was in a
  large lot of very plentiful modern Chinese counterfeit crowns.
  For the past year they have been all over the flea market and
  even seen at the local coin shows. They are made of low grade
  silver, cast and of fair to poor quality and sell for about $5.
  The typical coin is a counterfeit copy of the Chinese Yuan
  Shih Kai crown dated 3rd year (1916). This image is
  sometimes called the Fat-Boy emperor.

  How this mule was made and why is still a mystery. There
  should be no demand for a counterfeit crown of 1966
  Bahamas as the original 1966 is very plentiful as part of the
  first Bahamas proof sets.  The whole series of sets, with
  three large silver coins $10, $5, and the $2 sells near bullion,
  most of the time and not often broken up into individual pieces,
  as there is no collector base, except tourists visiting Nassau."

  "The quality of some of the counterfeit coins are getting better.
  The author specializes in Dime Size Silver Coins of the World,
  and was nearly fooled a month ago at his local club show.
  If the price had not been too cheap ($3 for a 1886 Hong Kong
  ten cent piece in au) and the same dealer, who to his defense,
  did not know much about foreign coins, also had a poor
  quality Canton 10¢ counterfeit, which was the tip off, to take
  a second look with a 16 power glass at the Hong Kong piece.
  It was a counterfeit."

  Submitted by Roger deWardt Lane, Hollywood, Florida. He
  and Steve Schor are active members of the Fort Lauderdale
  Coin Club, both retired and like the exercise of their weekly
  trips to the flea market to look for numismatic treasurers."

  [The article's last word is an amusing typo.  The only time
  most collectors go looking for "numismatic treasurers" is when
  it's time to nominate club officers, OR when there USED TO
  BE enough money in the club account to fund a nice trip to
  Nassau...  -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor 
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum