Counterfeit Coins Website

The Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) of the UNITED STATES offers a Counterfeit Detection website (↗) with tips on how to notice fake coins and to avoid purchasing or acquiring them. There is succinct information about the various types of counterfeiting: altered dates, altered mintmarks, cast, electrotypes, spark-erosion, and transfer-die. Counterfeit coins tend to have grainy texture, a worn polished surface, unnatural-looking luster, and/or weak details that cannot be explained by wear. Authentic coins with worn-down surfaces tend to have dirt, marks, etc. that give you an indication that a coin is real — but nevertheless has "seen better days" in the past decades or centuries.

If a coin has a clean, shiny surface but with worn features, this may or may not be a counterfeit coin. The best bet is to buy coins certified by coin-grading organizations, such as NGC, CAC, PGS, ANACS, and ICG. NGC also provides recent news regarding counterfeit coins (↗). Countries represented in the list of top-25 counterfeit world coins (non-US) include ERITREA, GREAT BRITAIN (United Kingdom), ITALY, JAPAN, RUSSIA, SAUDI ARABIA, and VIETNAM.