1898 penny forgeries

[Stantiques 10]

Hi there

 

How can you till if your 1898 bronze pennies are forgeries or real.

I have a 1898 bronze penny that is slabbed and Rated ms62 by NGC.

 

I have recently bought some pennies on BOB that were not in slabs and they seem to be alot shinier and newer looking than the slabbed one. Is there any way to till if they are fake or not

 

Thanks

Stanton

[Pierre_Henri 10]

What country's Pennies are you referring to?

 

Z.A.R. or GB or another country?

 

If Z.A.R. or GB then surely no one would forge coins of this date as they are neither rare nor scarce in even mint state?

 

Why not rather forge say a rare 1893 ZAR Penny if you have the knowhow how to forge a common 1898 date?

 

Kind regards

 

Pierre

[jwither 10]

I agree. The 1898 ZAR 1D is not worth the bother of counterfeiting when there are others in the same series that are worth so much more. Most likely, the coins referenced in the original post have been mishandled (polished or cleaned) if there actually anything wrong with them.

 

On the 1893 1D, this coin is not really particularly rare either but it would be a much better candidate. The census populations used to be low but there are well over 100 now in the combined census and I believe almost 50 even in MS.