Intro_Ind_Coin_Forgeries

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Shastris Introduction To

Indian Coin Forgeries, 2 nd Edition

Shastri JC Philip, PhD (Physics), DSc (Alt Medicine), ThD (Apologetics), PhD (Archeology and Numismatics)

Copyright: Creative Commons 2011 by Shastri Numismatics Academy

The rights of this book are released in Creative commons. This meansthat you are encouraged to distribute this book in any form, but withno alteration whatsoever. You are also welcome to distribute this bookfrom your website or on CD/DVD or similar media.

Shastri Numismatics Academy: our aim is to popularize Indian Coins. Thus we produce a largenumber of Indian Coin Resources for free distribution. Please join this campaign by distributing this

book free of cost. Also, do help us by sending photographs and information that we can use.


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Chapter 1

Coin Forgeries: Introduction

Money (coins, printedcurrency, electronic currency)is an object that using whichone can buy things, services,and a host of other nonmaterial things. Whether it isin the form of gold or silver coins, printed notes, or electronic currency, the net

worth of any given unit ofmoney is always more than theactual worth of the monetaryunit.

Consider a 500 rupee printednote for example. The actualworth or the intrinsic worth ofthat piece of paper is practically nothing. But since it has been issued by a ruling authority, or under the imprimatur of the ruling authority, it has a substantial buying power. Forgingcopies of these monetary units is common. While all kinds of money (electronic, printed,coined) are forged, in this book are concerned only with the forging of coins.

Forgery Of Indian Money

Forgery of money has always existed in all countries. Since Indians started using money byaround BC 1000, forgery started here almost 3000 years ago. Many ancient Indian writers

have mentioned counterfeit money, which confirms that forgery did exist right from ancienttimes. In his Economics, Kautilya mentions it. In the chapter The Duties Of The Chamberlain,he says:

He shall receive only such gold coins as have been declared to be pure by theexaminer of coins.

Counterfeit coins shall be cut into pieces.

Figure 1: Moulds that were used for making Roman Coinforgeries


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Whoever brings in counterfeit coins shall be punished with the first amercement.

In his chapter on the duties of the State Goldsmith he says:

Spurious stones and counterfeit gold and silver may be substituted for real ones in

compact and hollow pieces (ghanasushira). They are detected by hammering thepieces when red hot---so much for confounding (pinka).

Hence (the state goldsmith) shall have a thorough knowledge of the species,characteristics, colour, weight, and formation (pudgala-lakshana) of diamonds,precious stones (mani), pearls, corals and coins (rpa).

There are four ways of deception perpetrated when examining new pieces or repairing old ones: they are hammering, cutting, scratching and rubbing.

Kautilya also prescribed the methods to deal with counterfeits and some of these in thechapter The Removal Of Thorns. He says:

When the examiner of coins declares an unacceptable current coin to be worthy ofbeing entered into the treasury or rejects an acceptable current coin, he shall befined 12 panas. When the examiner of coins misappropriates amsha from a current coin of a pana, the tax, (Vyj) of fivepercent on the coin having been duly paid, he shall be fined 12panas. This explains the proportional increase of fines. When aperson causes a counterfeit coin to be manufactured, or accepts it, or exchanges it, he shall be fined 1,000 panas; he

who enters a counterfeit coin into the treasury shall be put to

death.]

In the chapter on Suppression Of Wicked Living By Foul Means he laysdown punishment for various crimes, and then says:

Manufacturers of counterfeit coins shall also be treatedsimilarly.

Whoever is suspected of manufacturing counterfeit coins in

that he often purchases various kinds of metals, alkalis, charcoal, bellows, pincers,crucibles, stove, and hammers, has his hands and cloths dirty with ashes and smoke,or possesses such other accessory instruments as are necessary for this illegalmanufacture, may be requested by a spy to take the latter as an apprentice, andbeing gradually betrayed by the spy, such person, on proclamation of his guilt as themanufacturer of false coins, shall be banished.

Figure 2: The GreatIndian Economist-strategist Kautilya,

also known asChanakya (a modern

rendering of hispicture)


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Similar steps may be taken against those who lower the quality of gold by mixing itwith an alloy, or deal with counterfeit gold (suvarna = coin ?)

Forgery must have been a large-enough activity in ancient India for it to be mentioned in somany places in an important treatise on Economics.

Coming to modern India, forgery of paper-currency is so frequent a crime that everyone isaware of one or more newspaper reports. Most of them also have read advertisementposted in newspapers by the government about how to detect fake notes.

Forgery of coins takes place at a much smaller volume in current coins, mainly because themargin of profit is too low for such an activity. However, forgeries of slightly older Republicof Indian coins has started recently, aimed mostly at numismatic collectors. This is a criminalactivity, but very few of them are booked because the small volume of counterfeits helpsthem to escape detection. These coins will be mentioned and illustrated in the appropriatesection of this book.

Pic: A Highly enlarged picture of a recent forgery, being sold to coin-collectors because thiscoin sell in the market for as much as ten times the cost of production. Look at the inner rim

at the bottom to see marks left from the imperfect casting-mould


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Why Is Money Forged

The buying power of monetary units, as mentioned before, is always more than their actualvalue. It is this buying power that attracts people to make counterfeits of money. Tounderstand this more clearly, it would be good to look at the intrinsic and extrinsic value ofmonetary units.

Intrinsic Value: The basic value of a substance, less than which its value would never go, canbe called its intrinsic value. For example, if one takes a gold or silver coin and mutiliates or melts it out of shape. It will no longer remain a legal tender for financial exchange, but it stillwill get the owner the cost of the gold or silver which is substantial. This minimum value,which one gets for an entity, come what may, can be called its intrinsic value. This valueresided in the nature of the material (metal value) and that is why it is called intrinsic tothe substance.

Obviously, the actual value of the coin or paper currency Is much more than the intrinsicvalue that it commands. That value is known as extrinsic value.

Extrinsic Value: In the barter system, people always exchange with each other items thatthey deem to be of equal or equivalent intrinsic value. However, when it comes to moneyfor material, the intrinsic value of the coin or printed note does not match the intrinsic valueof the material purchased. On the contrary, now it is the imprinted or attributed value of thefinancial instrument (coin or note) that is used to buy a material or serviced. This imprintedvalue if often many times the intrinsic value of the material out of which money is made. For

example, in a five hundred or one thousand rupee note, the paper on which it is printed(though it costs substantially to produce it) is practically worthless when the intrinsic valueof the paper or ink is considered. If the paper is burnt, one does not get anything in lieu ofthe ashes, whereas if a gold coin is melted one gets at least the market value of the gold.Thus in the case of printed notes, the value attributed to the note by the monetary authoritymight be thousands or even tens of thousands of the intrinsic value of the material out ofwhich the financial instrument is made.

This extra value does not come intrinsically, but rather is IMPOSED or ATTRIBUTED to it bythe monetary authority. Thus it is called the extrinsic value of that financial instrument.

The Motivation For Forgery: Since the extrinsic value of a coin is often many times theinherent or intrinsic value of the coin or note or financial instrument, forgers reckon that for a small investment (for forgery and circulation), they can get a huge extrinsic value. This isanother form of stealing where instead of taking away money from someone else, theysimply manufacture extrinsic money (or worth) which they do not own.


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Pic: Cast in a brass-like material (probably an alloy that is common in South India), this coinhas been plated to make it look authentic. Look at the left edge (position 7 to 12) to see the

unusually clear marks of casting. Look at position 3 for a small bulge from casting.

This coin is being sold by many coin-sellers because there is a demand for it, the selling-priceis much higher than cost of production, and because ignorance is very high among new coin

collectors whose numbers are only going to increase.


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Pic: Obverse and reverse of the coin shown earlier in a highly enlarged form

The biggest advantage, they reckon is that, unlike a thief, a forger does not have to put hislife and limbs at risk in this act. The only danger, he reckons, comes if he is caught. However,since no housebreak is involved, since one does not have to watch against the bite of thewatchdog, and since counterfeiting can be done in the privacy of ones basement or attic,the counterfeiter reckons that compared to stealing this is a safe way to apprehend richesthat do not honestly belong to him. Within the forgery of money one can see more than onemotivating factor, and it would be good to see them separately.

Uses Of Forged Money While coin-collectors often think only of forged coins that are sold in coin-shops, forgedmoney is used for more than one purpose and a brief overview of these would be useful.

1. Forgery For Using It As Money: This is by far the most common reason, and the mostlucrative reason for forging financial instruments. This includes the forgery of coins, printednotes, and also electronic currency.

Forged money has always existed during all periods of history and in all cultures. More sowherever precious metals (gold and silver) coins were part of the currency. The momentpaper currency came into existence, forging them became more attractive becausetechnological developments made it lucrative for people to counterfeit paper currency.

During periods when gold and silver coins were used, many forgers made coins that wereidentical in appearance with regular coins, but which were either of lower weight or ofinferior quality (debased) of gold and silver. Others made coins with copper core and thicksilver cladding. In all these cases they saved on gold and silver that did not go into the coin.


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Still other made copper coins with heavy silver plating on them and this increased their profit margin to higher degree than coins made of debased gold or silver.

Today practically 60 to 80% of silver coins from Mugal and Princely States come with test-cuts or test punches. Some coins have multiple test punches, made either by the sameshroff or by multiple shroffs at different periods of time. This is the most enduring historicalevidence that counterfeiting of silver coins using a core of inferior metals was a commonpractice.

Even today counterfeiting of larger denomination metallic coins does take place, but thevolume of production is much lower than the volume at which modern paper currency iscounterfeited. There is practically no circulation of large-denomination metallic coins in themarkets these days, though they are still minted, and therefore it is practically impossible toconceal large-denomination coin counterfeits which require a large flow of coins to hide

among them. Counterfeiting lower denomination coins is not very attractive as the marginbetween the sales price and cost of production is much higher here.

Counterfeiting of paper currency is much more profitable than counterfeiting modern coinsfirst because the bulk of transaction even in ordinary life takes place via paper currency.Thus there is a flood of paper-currency among which the counterfeits can be hidden.Second, the margin of profit in paper-counterfeits is hundreds of times more than themargin of profit in coin counterfeits.

2. Forgery For Selling To Numismatists And Tourists: Coin collection and Numismatics hasbecome a popular hobby worldwide in the last two centuries. While the average person isinterested only in currency that is current, coin collectors and numismatists are interestedboth in what is current as well as in what is now defunct as currency.

Tourists who visit ancient historical places often love to collect souvenirs for themselves andalso for their friends. Thus when they spot what is claimed as a two thousand year old coinfrom this very historical spot they are tempted to buy these coins. None even one amongten thousand tourists will have the expertise to recognize a fake ancient coin of that

country, even if it is executed very crudely because it is reckoned that ancient hand-madecoins were crude compared to todays machine-made coins.

This opens up a very large market to the counterfeiter, because practically no governmentgoes after people who counterfeit defunct coins because such coins never enter the currentmoney-stream. What is more, since there is an ever-growing number of coin-collectors and


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tourists, this is an ever-expanding market. What is more, the prices these coins commandare often very high.

Pic: Forgery for selling to coin-collectors. The seller falsely claims that this half rupee coin, inaddition to being minted in silver, was also minted in Zinc!!! He labels it as OMS or Off Metal

Strike, which has become a technical Euphemism for milking coin collectors. The mostinteresting thing is that this seller was able to cheat many other sellers to buy several

OMS coins from him!

Thus a Mysore Tipu Sultan copper coin fabricated for less than Rs. 10 can easily fetchanywhere between Rs. 200 to 500. A silver coin set of Tipu with silver content of less thanRs. 2500 was recently offered on the market for Rs. 100,000 by a seller known to me. Since Iknew the set was fake, he came down to Rs. 10,000. Finally he was able to sell it to someonefor Rs. 25,000. Thus forging ancient coins is a highly profitable business for those whohave sales outlets in tourist centers and also among coin-collectors.

If the buyer knows the seller, then these coins are taken back if the buyer finds out that they

are fakes. But this happens only rarely because most small collectors (who are responsiblefor the bulk of the buying) usually buy in coin exhibitions and never meet the seller again.Thus only big-time buyers who form long-term relations with sellers really get to returnfakes to the sellers.

Forgers who sell in numismatic markets also forge what is called Tokoins. These look likeTokens on one side and coins on the others. Since what are engraved on both the sides are


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familiar scenes for collectors they simply buy them thinking that these are genuine monetarycoins. Sellers usually describe them using ambiguous terms, adding to the false belief of thebuyer that these real coins. On Ebay these Tokoins are often sold as genuine monetary coinsand most new collectors do not realize that they are being cheated.

Pic: Some numismatic sellers have become so bold that they are selling forgeries of Republicof India coins by labeling them as Off Metal Strike coins. The above coin, make of lead, and

executed in an imperfect manner, still gets buyers because most coin-collectors (maybearound 60%) do not even know that forgeries are being peddled. This guy was able to sell

this coin to another coin-seller who was a newcomer and implicitly trusted the more senior coin-seller.


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3. Forgery For Political Reasons: The science of economics has shown that there has to be adelicate balance between the money that circulates, the volume of commerce, and the priceof commodities in any country. Upsetting this balance (mostly with the help of counterfeitcurrency) can totally destabilize the finances of a country, bringing the government topartial or total collapse.

The great Indian Economist-strategist Kautilya is one of the persons who centuries agounderstood this precarious balance. Thus in his Economics he explains how one candestabilize the enemy kingdom with forged money, and also how to protect ones ownsovereign country from counterfeits. In Replenishment Of The Treasury in Arthashastra,Kautilya says:

Or a spy, under the garb of a servant of a seditious person, may mix counterfeit coinswith the wages (he has received from his master), and pave the way for his arrest.

Or a spy, under the garb of a goldsmith, may undertake to do some work in thehouse of a seditious person, and gather in his employer's house such instruments asare necessary to manufacture counterfeit coins.

While the exact details and the delicate balance of currency, markets, and commodities

became clear only in modern times, many ancient people knew about this. The fact thatcounterfeit money can destabilize the economy is now used by many countries when theyforge the currency of enemy country and fill the markets of that country with this forgedcurrency. While forgery for political reasons does not directly concern coin-collectors, theyshould still know about this channel of forgery. One does not know when this informationwill become handy in this hobby such as in detecting fake currency in the collection ofhobbyists.

Coin Forgery In India

As mentioned earlier, coin-forgery (and later printed currency forgery) has always existedwherever official money has existed. India is no exception. It will be good to look at coinforgery in India based upon a classification as given below:


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1. Forgery In Ancient Times: Coin forgery did exist in ancient India, and that is why Kautilyadevotes considerable attention to this topic. He mentions forgery that is aimed at financialgain, and also the one that is aimed at political destabilizing of enemy nations. He alsomentions the methods for discovering counterfeits, counterfeiters, and the punishment that

is to be meted out to them.Some of the ancient counterfeits have, fortunately, survived and they give a glimpse to themodern student of numismatics. Counterfeiting of coins started in the ancient worldbecause gold and silver coins were abundant, and the counterfeiter was able to use metalsof less intrinsic value for counterfeiting the coins of gold and silver.

The most massive, and disastrous, forgery of coins took place in India the 14 th century whenMuhammad bin Tughlaq (1325-1351) ruled. He was an eccentric, though brilliant, and he wasone of the first to try a fiduciary system of money a system which is somewhat similar to

the extrinsic value that is imprinted on Indian paper currency. He based this experimentwhen he came across Chinese paper currency where the extrinsic value depends upon thetrust that people place on the issuing authority. Thus he issued a range of coins in brass andcopper with inscriptions such as 'Sealed as a tanka of fifty ganis'. He appealed people totrust the inflated value of this currency because it was issued by the ruler. However, thisinflated value immediately tempted people to forge coins for the huge gains they were likelyfrom the inflated value of these coins made in metals that were easily available at thattime. Perhaps hundreds of thousands of these coins were forged before the Emperor stopped this currency and bought all forged currency with coins of stable value. Nobody

knows how many of these forgeries exist even today among the coins that are reckoned ashis.

2. Forgery In Modern Times: While India was relatively free of coin-forgery till the 1990s, andthough most of the forgeries were of paper currency, the fast-growing numismatic andtourist market has resulted in a boom for counterfeiters also.

Coins of Tipu Sultan, both copper as well as silver, have always enjoyed great demand andthey are being forged now with a vengeance in Karnataka. The bulk of them are sold totourists, but gradually they are permeating into numismatic markets also.

Another trick, that is highly successful, is to mint coins using lead and brass-like alloys andthen selling them as they are or with silvery coating. These are labeled as OMS or Off MetalStrikes. The sellers assure buyers that while the original coin was minted in, say bronze,brass, or nickel, a few coins were also minted in off metal zinc and lead. They then claimthat since the OMS were very few in numbers, they have become rare collectors item


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now. Since the average collector does not have access to coin catalogs, he believes theseller and gets duped.

3. Tokoins That Are Sold As Numismatic Coins: Tokens with the pictures of gods andgoddesses upon them have been fairly common in India. Pilgrims who visit temples oftenbuy these tokens in bulk, get them blessed and anointed by the priest, and then distributethem as religious souvenirs to their friends. Almost all of them place these tokens in their private sanctuary for worshipping.

These are commonly called Ramatankas and authentic Ramatankas that are available todayhave a 100 to 200 years of history. (Older Ramatankas made of gold and silver are alsoavailable in private collections, but seldom do they reach the market these days). Thepopularity of Ramatankas or Hindu Religious Tokens (a para numismatic item) and fullynumismatic items motivated some people in Bombay to fabricate a cross between religioustokens and numismatic coins. Since these are neither Temple Tokens, nor coins, they arerightly labeled as Tokoins (token+coin). Tokoins available in the market these days have nonumismatic history behind them as they come to the numismatic market straight from theTokoin forgers.

Pic: An authentic Ramatanka or Hindu Religious Token which might have been produced inthe 1800s (as judged from the style and also from the characteristics of the Nagari script)

Used With Permission of www.indiannumismatics.com


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Pic: A recent Tokoin in the market that is being sold as East India Company Coin from 1616which is a totally false information. This is a case Tokoin that goes from the fabricator to the

seller without any connection either with EIC or with any temple

Tokoins need to be included in any introduction to Coin Forgery because a good number ofthem are sold these days (at least in the whole of South India) by numismatic sellers under the pretext that they are numismatic coins. On Ebay a large number of sellers basedthroughout India sell them with the claim that these are old EIC coins which is a totally

false claim. Unwary coin collectors in South India by these Tokoin by the thousands everyyear and display them to other unwary collectors as prized catches.

4. Fantasy Coins, That Look Like Genuine Modern Indian Coins: Of late some sellers havestarted minting what have been labeled by some non Indian collectors as Fantasy Coins. InIndia they would be labeled as an attempt to forge coins similar to legal currency and would

be arrested, thus their sales within India is not widespread yet. The picture of a sample setis reproduced below:


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Picture: Tokens forged with so many similarities with Republic of India coins that (such asthe denomination, the use of the word rupee or paise, year of minting, and the name of anIndian state) that possession and sales of these tokens are a criminal offense in India. Both

the seller as well as the owner can be arrested as there is nothing on the tokens thatindicates to an average person that these are NOT legally issued currency

Some numismatists have labeled the above coins as Fantasy Coins. However, sucheuphemisms does not change the fact that selling/possessing these coins in India is a

criminal offense. Some sellers publish a disclaimer on their site that these are unofficialissues. Such disclaimers (that are not on the coin itself) are of no legal value if anyone is

discovered with these coins within the Republic of India

Unless these coins contain a clear Indication on them that they are not Indian money(such as removal of the numbers and words related to Indian money) these coins come very

close to definition of forgery of Indian money


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Holding and selling these fantasy Coins that imitate current Republic of India coins to a levelthat can confuse people into thinking that they are monetary coins, and which have noindication on their body that they are not coins, is a criminal offense in India. Iindian Coin-collectors should not take risk by buying them. What is more, they should also realize that

these coins have no numismatic value whatsoever.

Summary

Eternal vigilance is the cost to be paid if you do not wish to be duped! Do not fall for anything and everything that is sold in the numismatic market today. Adopt the followingstrategies if you plan to be seriously into coins:

1. Invest money in comprehensive catalogs

2. By only from sellers who are ready to take the coin back if a coin turns out to be fake

3. Keep reading

Photographs of forged coins are given at the end of this Ebook


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Acknowledgements

Many numismatists, coin-collectors, and coin sellers helped me to bring this project to fruition. I amgrateful to all of them. These include (alphabetically first-name, except SACG) :

South Asia Coins Group: SACG is the premier group of numismatists and coin-collectors whoare devoted to the study and promotion of South Asian coins. As a member I am thankful tothe Group for allowing me to air my views, questions, and queries.

Girish Bambani: Helped me to obtain more than on ancient forgeries

Jagdish Agarwal: Brought an important even from the history of forgery to my attention, and Iadded to in the 2 nd edition of this book

Lalitha Ramabadran: Helped me with many scans and a good amount of input

Mrugendra Kuntala: Gave me suggestion about historical review and bibliography

Raghunadh Raju: Has helped me through voluminous inputs to grow in this field. He alsoexamined a large number of the fake coins that I showed him and was able to identify 49

fakes out of a set of 50 though some of these fakes had easily fooled coin-sellers

Robert ( Chesterfield, England): Helped with a strong critique to me evaluate my work

Dr. Sunil Sood: Helped me with a good amount of input and has been tutoring me innumismatics

Several coin-sellers who allowed me to examine and scan fake coins. They do not wish to benamed for obvious reasons. Some were (obviously) reluctant to allow me to photograph thecoins, and that is why I could not get better pictures of some coins that look very dark.


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Forged Coins: Pictures Most Pictures Have Been Enlarged To Give A Clear View Of Defects

Tipu Sultan Silver Coin Forgeries

Pic: This is a set of four silver coins of Tipu Sultan. The remaining two coins, and additionalinformation, is given on the next page


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Forgery Of Tipu Sultan Silver Coins: Contd

Pic: The above four forgeries of Tipu Sultan have been made in Kernataka. The forgers areproducing an endless number of sets that are purchased/sold mostly by coin-sellers who

know that these are forged coins.

The asking price can vary from Rs. 100,000 to Rs. 10,000 per set. The lower price being for people like me who recognized the set as forgery. The average price on which Indian buyers

settle is around Rs. 25,000, but the price at which foreign tourists settle the bargain isanybodys guess.

The coin looks like silver, but it is a mixture of silver and other metals and one can feel that ifone has handled hundreds of silver coins. The sound they produce on being dropped on asolid surface is are different from that of normal silver coins. Originally these coins wereoffered in mint condition but, now that they have become smarter, it is offered in soiled

condition as shown above.


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The Off Metal Strike Fraud/Forgeries

EIC/British India And Republic of India coins are forged in metals different from the metal inwhich the original coins were issue. These are then sold as OMS with the claim that the

government had minted a small number of coins as OMS, making them very rare andworth a buy/investment by coin-enthusiasts

1940 Zinc Zinc OMS Fraud/Forgery

1940 Copper OMS Fraud/Forgery

More OMS frauds on the next pages: Those who peddle these OMS coins havesuccessfully been able to fool other sellers, using the trust factor, let alone average

customers who know nothing about the forgeries. Notice the word RARE on the label!


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1942 Brass OMS Fraud/Forgery

1943 OMS Brass OMS Fraud/Forgery

1950 OMS One Anna Copper OMS Fraud/Forgery


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1925 Two Anna Zinc OMS Fraud/Forgery

1925 Two Anna Zinc OMS Fraud/Forgery

1968 Two Anna White-metal OMS Fraud/Forgery(The original coin is in yellow-metal)


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Bibliography

Forgery Of Indian Coins:

Forgery of Indian coin is an old practice, but of late the volume and range of forgeries hasincreased much, mainly for selling them to numismatic hobbyist and tourist. The amount ofpublications is very less compared to the gravity of the problem. Some of the best articlesand books are:

SK Bose, Forged Coins Of North-east India: Highlights, Numismatic Digest, Vol. 23-24, 1999-2000(A very useful, illustrated, paper on the increasing counterfeits in North East)

John K. Cooley , Currency Wars: How Forged Money is the New Weapon of Mass Destruction,Skyhorse Publishing , 2008

Charles M. Larson , Numismatic Forgery, Zyrus Press, 2004 [A highly illustrated volumethat gives pictures and explains every step in a highly sophisticated forgeryoperation. Such techniques are not common in India, but can make an entry ifcounterfeiting is not exposed in time]

Michael Mitchiner, Forgeries Of Ancient Lead Coins Of Karnataka, Numismatic Digest, Vol. 20,1996 (Illustrated paper on large-scale forgeries of Maharathi and other coins that fooled evensome experts)

Paul Craddock (Editor), Scientific Investigation of Copies, Fakes and Forgeries, Butterworth-

Heinemann, 2009

R. Shamasastri, Kautilyas Arthashastra, PDF Copy available from http://www.IndianCoins.org (Ahighly readable translation. All students of Indology should definitely read this book)

Forgery Of Non Indian Coin:

Coin forgery for selling to numismatic fraternity has been going all over the world at a highlevel. Some of the key books related to this are listed below:

Guillaume Beauvais, An Essay on the Means of Distinguishing Antique, fromCounterfeit, Coins and Medals, BiblioLife, 2009

John W. Dannreuther, The Official Guide to Coin Grading and Counterfeit Detection,2nd Edition, House of Collectibles, 2004


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D. Dimitrov, I. Prokopov, and B. Kolev , Modern Forgeries of Greek and Roman Coins,Sofia, 1997

David Hendin , Not Kosher: Forgeries of Ancient Jewish and Biblical Coins, Amphora,2005

Ilya Prokopov, Coin Forgeries and Replicas, Provias Ltd, 2007

Wayne G. Sayles , Classical Deception: Counterfeits, Forgeries and Reproductions ofAncient Coins, Krause Publications, January 200 1

Jeffrey Watson & Don Thomas, Heads I Win: The True Story of David Gee, Australia'sMost Audacious Coin Forger, HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty, 1986


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Please Join Our Educational Campaign!

The aim of Shastri Numismatics Academy is to popularizeIndian Coins. We invite every coin-lover to join our campaign.

Coins are exciting to collect, but there is very littleinformation on coins available that is free. We cannot blamethe writers who price their books very high becausesomehow they need to recover some money that theyinvest to buy coins and coins these days do cost an armand a leg, and much more!

The high price of books and catalogs only keeps newcomersaway from this hobby because unless they become familiar with the excitement of coin-collection, they are not going to buy coins. But if the books arevery expensive, they are not going to discover the field. Thus Shastri Numismatics Academyhas been striving to make a substantial amount of information on Indian coins totally free,and we have started seeing success in this venture. This book is a testimony to another milestone that we have crossed in our mission. We now need your help to nurture this noblemission.

Since no individual or Academy can have access to all the coins that it needs to photograph,and since no individual can write about all the coins that are there, we invite you to help us.You can help us by sending coin pictures. Contact us and we will guide you in how to scan

them. Also, we will give you full credit for your pictures that we use. We also invite you tosend articles or longer manuscripts to be cast into Ebooks for free distribution. We will giveyou full guidance in how to write about coins. We are also happy to receive articles that havebeen published elsewhere. Give them a second life by sending them to us for freedistribution.

Contact me at [email protected]

With GreetingsShastri JC Philip

Documents

Intro_Ind_Coin_Forgeries