Obvious FAKE Gold Sovereign from ASTONISHING source!

How Did We Find This Fake Gold Sovereign? 

We see a wide variety of fakes at Chards. In fact, hardly a single day goes by without at least one customer bringing or sending us a fake coin. Some days we’ll even see a dozen fake coins. So we have come to recognise quite a few things about them.  

At Chards, as well as a purchasing service, we are often asked to store coins for our customers, including gold Sovereigns.  As part of our comprehensive storage process, we always insist on checking through all coins, to verify that they are what they are supposed to be! This enables us to provide the very best possible service to our customers and of course, it’s vital for insurance cover. So, each and every coin sent or brought to us for storage is fully checked.  

The Story of a Fake Sovereign Discovery 

We had a customer who wanted us to store a coin collection. We dutifully asked him to visit our showroom with his coins and as part of his visit, we checked every single coin for him.  

As we were checking, we came across a specific coin in this customer’s collection – a 1911 London Mint Sovereign. It looked very nice. It was bright and shiny and not totally dissimilar to Minty looking gold coins. There was also very little wear on the coin. The only problem we had with it was that for all its lustre, it was a fake!  

Figure 1: Obverse, 1911 Fake George V Sovereign

What Does the reverse of a Fake 1911 Sovereign Look Like?

Lawrence Chard, our CEO, and an absolute expert in the field, immediately spotted that the light patterns on the coin were ‘not quite right’ and identified it as a ‘fake’.  

He also very quickly highlighted a key point to identifying it’s ‘fake’ status and described a slightly raised area in a curve on the coin (Figure 2), something that is often seen on fakes, that can occur because of casting or when a fake is struck by a die. However, there are a number of other areas on the coin that point towards it being fake.  

Figure 2: Fake 1911 London Mint Gold Sovereign - Reverse

So what did we find? 

• The B.P (Benedetto Pistrucci’s initials (Figure 3) are blurry and blob like and are difficult to make out.  
• The digits (specifically the 11) as shown in Figure 4, look wrong and the sizing is off. 
• The area around the middle of the coin on the reverse, shows St George’s right leg and the horse looking faint and weak.  
• On the body of the horse, there is a small, dull mark, most likely from an acid test perhaps performed in the past by a jeweller.  
• We weighed the coin and after converting the metric carats, we saw on initial testing it weighed 7.9738g, which is slightly underweight for a genuine Sovereign.  
• The lead current weight (essentially the lightest a Sovereign weighs) is 7.93787 grams, which shows the coin is actually under the lead current weight.  Another clue as to its status as a fake.  

Lawrence Chard also identified an area around the middle of the coin on the reverse where St George’s leg and the horse looked very faint and weak.  

A genuine coin like this would have been made by the Royal Mint but this coin clearly wasn’t.  

Lead current weight: Explanation 

Why Niton Testing Can’t Tell if Your Sovereign Is Genuine

We tested this coin (for 60 seconds which is industry standard) and found that its content was entirely within the normal parameters for scoring. This means that the machine calculated the gold content as 22 carat gold. So in this case, it tests as genuine because the gold content is correct. However, it does not tell you if the ‘coin’ itself is genuine. 

Many people use a Niton machine and in getting that 22 carat result, may well assume it must be genuine.  

Why Experience Counts

Our 60 years of experience and expert numismatists not only check for the correct gold content of a coin, they also look at the detail, which is how Lawrence Chard our CEO, could identify this fake from a distance! No machine required but we did use one just to demonstrate why Niton testing can only go so far.  

Niton metal tests: Refer to the use of Niton XRF analysers for identifying and analysing the elemental composition of metals, particularly precious metals. 

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