Gold Counterfeits Vol. 1: The British Sovereign
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- Counterfeit gold is something most stackers are concerned about. But the bad guys have been fighting this battle for centuries. Join me as we look at historical--and much more recent--counterfeit Sovereigns and the equipment we've used over time to uncover them!
I mention the Gold Rookie's First Purchase video series in this video. You'll find that series here:
• The Gold Rookie's Firs...
And if you liked this video, check out the LIVE STREAM that followed immediately after this video's premier, where we took a closer look at the scale and some of the pieces from the video, and answered additional questions and comments from viewers and subscribers:
ruclips.net/user/li...
I've got an Edward v11 sov that is brighter yellow too - it is genuine so seeing yours believe must of been the gold used!
Good video
Hey cool! Thanks for letting me know!
Color has nothing to do with it. It depended on what alloy the mint received at that time. Most sovereigns contained copper, mix for the alloy, some brass, and some but rarely silver. But are all 22ct gold.
G@philippayne4951 - lol hence the different colour 🤣
Good video. I’m surprised you didn’t also use a strong (molybdenum) magnet as a test too.
An excellent idea.
Going back to around 5:00 in the video, the sovereign was first made as a coin in 1489 but ceased after 1604 and re-introduced in 1816. Good tips on spotting the counterfeits though.
True, but the sovereigns of Henry VIII etc. were an entirely different animal. They were twice the size and nearly twice the weight of the modern sovereign.
Thank you for your pod from America, we enjoyed watching at the Royal mint wales.
Great informative vid 🪙
Thanks! Glad you liked it. Keep your eyes out for parts 2 and 3 coming up soon! And thanks for watching and commenting!
In the UK in early 1980's there was a massive gold robbery, ( Brinks ) . Lots of that bullion was melted down and cast into sovereigns, the way to tell a cast sovereign from a royal mint one was quite simple. There were rings of varying circumferences on both faces of the coins from the cooling gold castings. These sovereigns were exact in size and weight, but not real in the sense they were not original royal mint created coins. I would imagine there are still some in peoples collections around the world.
@@gypsy-shack Cool!
Hey Dub-C awesome learning opportunity, looking forward to the next one
Thanks as always, Miles!
Very good video my friend. Your so easy to listen to Dub--C..
Enjoyed it a lot. Thanks.
🇺🇲🦅⚖️
Quality content as always. Thanks white cross.
Thank you! Glad you liked it!!
Great explanation. Thank you. X
You're welcome. Glad you found it useful. Keep your eyes out for the next two videos in this series!
Great work. Keep it up.
Thank you!
Thank you for sharing this information! 🎉🎉
Love this topic, so it was a joy to make the video. Glad you liked it!
Years ago my dad thought one of his half crowns was a fake, walking past the Westminster Bank, he went in, and expressed his concerns to a clerk. Who took the suspect coin out the back, emerging 2 minutes later and handed dad his coin back which had been cut in two, with the enlightening explanation. "You were right Sir".!
Out of sight, my brother and I were laughing ourselves sick.!
@@johnrideout7124 Awesome stoty!
Dude, that is awesome. I learn. something every day here on RUclips.
That's the kind of comment that makes my day. Thanks! :)
Great video professor Dub!!
Thank you kindly!
What a great video
That was so interesting, and so well explained.
Thanks so much. Glad you liked it!
GREAT VIDEO, VERY INTERESTING AND ENTERTAINING. WHERE CAN WE OBTAIN ONE OF THE OLD TYPE SCALES?
Thank you! Got the scale online. I talk about it in the live stream that followed the premier. That live stream will be available to view in the next few days.
@@Dub-C_Coins WHEN IS THE LIVE STREAM SCHEDULED?
I love gold sovereigns, design, history, size and purity.
I only have a small collection of the 1/2 Sovereigns.
The high price of gold has cramped my purchasing power to get any more for now !
Got mine from well known distributors.
Me too! Smart move to get 'em from trusted sources.
Despite the designs age and characteristics (weird weight) IMO the British gold sovereign is still the best bullion coin to stack bar none. And there’s even highly collectible ones if that’s your thing. 75% of the gold I hold is in (genuine 🙂) sovereigns. And those scales are very cool. Great video, thank you! 👍
You and me both, mate. Love the Sovereign. I enjoy the hunt--earlier dates, Vicky and even young Vicky. And AU/BU condition. When you find them at the same price as "regular" bullion? Chuffed.
@@Dub-C_Coins I just don’t like the ‘red’ (later) gold ones quite as much. The vast majority of mine are from the mid-2000s when I was one-a-month buying but the shield back young heads sure are pretty….. 🙂.
There is the technique of pickling which will draw the copper from a gold or silver surface giving it a pure look. Your yellow sovereign might have undergone a jewelers treatment after it previously had sweated brown copper.
Interesting. Thanks 😊
Old gold constitutional are works of art, looks like yours are XF condition, very nice. That scale is a nice piece of nostalgia also I'm going to try to aquire one myself.👍
Yep, I'm a big fan of the classic stuff. Lots of uncirculated pieces, too. But those are all in slabs so they wouldn't have worked for this video.
That's a neat look scale. Is that an antique scale?
It is indeed. You'll see it in the video!
great history lesson. never understood why they made duplicate coins out of real gold.
Glad you liked it!
another great educational video dubs ! let me ask you though whats your take on sovereigns and pesos that fall a little short of the wieght of true 1/4 oz or 1/2 oz of gold? i used the find bullion app to check out sovereigns of the 1/4 oz variety as a price gauge when it comes to gold. certainly its hard not to ignore the cheaper price. so whats your take, would you rather have 4 gold sovereigns or 4 gold krugerands?? thank you dubs.
Thanks, and great question. I've never really had an issue with those older, non-troy ounce weighed pieces. Any reputable dealer will know how to calculate the gold value without batting an eye--it's just second nature. And I just happen to love both sovereigns and Krugerrands. Something really cool about 22k, 91.7% pure gold. I like the durability of the non-.999 pure pieces.
The last sovereign was genuine. I have a Sigma machine. It might be a bit higher in gold content or silver.
Where did you get the scale? Very cool 😎
Searched for a couple of years until I found an example with a nice, original box. Found it online. I talk about it in the live stream that followed the video. That live stream will be available to watch soon!
@@Dub-C_Coins I hope I misunderstand you, but your takeaway seems to be that the antique Sovereign scale is better that The Fisch. But due to old age many of the antique scales I have tested are inaccurate. The Fisch (using the same principles) is not just something from the 1990s, but actually a very reliable gauge. And if tungsten could fool The Fisch the antique scale would be fooled as well 🙂
@@Jan-m5c2r You misunderstand. The takeaway should be that there are counterfeits out there in every series.
There are somtimes pock marks that got on sovereigns, caused by the air bubles getting into the gold when the gold cooled down. This mostley accured on the halfsovereign, but did accur on the sovereigns right up to 1976. They never worried about this in the old days, because it was just money, not made for collectors. Today however, every modern sovereign is spot on, due to modern technolgy.
Counterfeit for commerce and counterfeit for collecting ? Why should it matter ? Counterfeit is counterfeit ! Simplify , simplify , simplify .
Some counterfeit sovereigns were heavier then the genuine pieces, and some were underweight. Most fakes during the 1970s were made in the middle east. Today many are made in China, which some are very good, and made very well. There are many different types of fakes around, and I have seen them all over many years.
The edge is called milling. From the uk.
It would have been good if you changed the setting on your sigma to 90% gold like the US Eagle and tested the fake sovereign to see if it fell inside the brackets.
FWIW the fake sovereign reads outside of the brackets.
love the 8 reales coins
Lots of examples of both the Spanish Colonial and the Mexican Republic pieces like these in the Stacking Mexican Silver series:
ruclips.net/p/PLebJigXP2OH9v99jYhBvX5-9M5KvxAKrt
Went to a flea market some time ago that was advertising Gold and Jewelery store. Visited five stalls, four had "Gold Sovereigns". Two of those I could tell straight off the bat were fakes/jewelers Copies like the ones described. Definitely an eye opener. However, they were all advertised as full authentic sovereigns.
Yup, I think it's a lot more common that people realize!
Color has nothing to do with sovereign being genuine or not. The modern sovereigns of charles 111 are very coppery in color, but are all 22ct gold. All genine sovereigns, have pyx test done on them in London every year, to make sure the carrot weight is correct. These triels were done regularly to make sure they were correct. Many people prefer the old sovereigns, to the new ones, because they like the yellow color better. The new sovereigns are very coppery in color, but are all 22ct gold. Its rose gold. Its all a matter of personel choice which you prefer. But they all 22ct gold.
Thanks, I appreciate your perspective!
I had some Middle Eastern “fakes” from Egypt. They looked like sovereigns, but had a 21k stamp. So not really a counterfeit, it was obviously marked and just in the style of a sovereign.
I show examples of these pieces with that exact mark on them in the video. Do you think the British mint would consider them to be counterfeit?
The "Lebanon" or Italian copies...
Platinum sovereigns were made in Brasil.
acid test?
Question?
Very interesting, not sure why he says for example the 1915 sovereign "towards the end of when they were being made" I have about 100, they make them every year!
Thanks. He actually said "they are still being made to this day". But he also said "toward the end of the when they were being made" meaning for circulation. London mintages fell from tens of millions before the first world war to none, or none issued, by London until they were issued for collectors in 1937 (except for the 1925s). Those issued were made by overseas mints, and even those ceased to be made for circulation by 1932.