page_title: Coin counterfeiting
section_title: Collectible counterfeit coins
hierarchical_section_title: Coin counterfeiting / Collectible counterfeit coins
caption_attribution_description: English: Athens Tetradrachms with multiple test cuts
context_page_description: Coin counterfeiting of valuable antique coins is common; modern high-value coins are also counterfeited and circulated.
  Counterfeit antique coins are generally made to a very high standard so that they can deceive experts; this is not easy and many coins still stand out.
context_section_description: A well known and popular numismatic item is the 1944 nickel counterfeited by Francis LeRoy Henning. Unlike official specimens, this spurious item is missing a large mintmark for the Philadelphia Mint.  Because of a different wartime composition, all nickels of this period had large mintmarks.  Normally the Philadelphia mint would not have included one, but in 1944 all of its nickels had a "P" above the dome of Monticello.  It is estimated that 100,000 of these coins were placed into circulation.  Today they remain readily available to collectors.
  Both scarce 1923-D and 1930-D dimes were found in circulation, and they are of interest to collectors since no such date-mint combinations were issued for this particular denomination. It has been suggested that they may have been part of an attempt by the Soviet Union to sell its silver on the world market by counterfeiting (with full precious metal weight) U.S. coins.  If so, the engravers blundered by producing "impossible" coins.
  Among the examples of counterfeits of high-value collectible coins are the "Omega" coins produced in the early 1970s by an unknown counterfeiter who signed his creations with a miniature Greek letter omega. He is believed to have made over 20,000 fake 1907 high-relief nominally US$20 gold Double Eagle coins with the signature omega in the claw of the eagle, worth hundreds of millions of dollars at today's prices. His counterfeits are of such high quality that collectors will pay upwards of $1,000 for one; although a genuine coin sells for about $50,000 to $100,000. The same counterfeiter also counterfeited other US gold coins, including a large quantity of $3 gold pieces, dated 1874, 1878 and 1882, with the 1882 being the most prevalent. Three of the counterfeit $10 gold pieces, the 1910-P, the 1913-P and the 1926-P, have the omega placed upside down within the upper loop of the "R" of "LIBERTY" in the Native American's headdress.
caption: A tetradrachm from Ancient Athens, dated circa 449-413 BC. Contains multiple 'test cuts' which were commonly made by suspicious minds in antiquity to detect forgeries by assessing whether the base metal underneath was the same (silver) or a cheaper metal (e.g. bronze). This coin has silver beneath and is not an ancient forgery.
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