The sector pf indochinese silver coins is very affected by copies, piastres and divisionnaires of 10, 20 and 50 centimes. There it is mistrust that must prevail over optimism... During a recent trip to Laos I found only 3 authentic piastres out of several thousand coins offered for sale and only one authentic 10 cents .
There are several reasons for this phenomenon. There is a market for the currencies of Indochina which remains the best way to awaken vocations as forgers. There are collectors and, above all, there are tourists! What could be more original and amusing than bringing back as a souvenir one of these old coins which recall the French presence in the region and which can be found for not very expensive on the stalls of almost all the markets?
However, the quantity of old piastres available is relatively limited, notwithstanding the sometimes large mintages. Indeed, these coins have been largely recast for the needs of goldsmithing. Then they are hoarded in families, a bit like the 50 F Hercules in France, and rarely come out for sale. Finally, silver still serves as a safe haven in the same way as gold. In silver, a piastre is worth double or triple in Asia what it is worth in Europe on the narrow collectors' market.
These different factors favor the mass production of fakes. From colonial times, piastres have been copied and, in the contemporary period, small scams have multiplied. Counterfeiters have hastily molded bad copies to offer them to tourists. As for the goldsmiths, they mass-produced fake piastres and fake divisionnaires in billon to offer them for recasting and thus lower the title of the silver objects, jewels or cult objects they sold. It is indeed customary in Asia to buy the raw precious metal in the form of ingots or coins before having jewelry or goldsmith pieces made.
Today, therefore, collectors find both forgeries "for use" and modern copies of Indochina coins. For rarer currencies, he must also be attentive to another fraud which consists in disguising authentic currencies in order to add to them an added value. When we have presented these various frauds, a word will remain to be said about private mintings having legal tender which must be distinguished from counterfeit money.
Fakes to serve :
We call "false to serve" the counterfeits intended to be put into circulation. They are therefore counterfeit contemporaries of the imitated coins. The phenomenon goes back to antiquity and we know the imitations of the great ancient currencies (coins of Alexander or Roman deniers) or feudal currencies (denier de Melgueil for example). Sometimes, as in the case of certain Gallic currencies, it is a question of giving value to local strikes to facilitate their circulation. Often, it is more prosaically a question of copying currencies in circulation at a lower cost in order to derive a profit from them.
Logically the most copied currencies are those that give the most purchasing power and, in Indochina, these are the piastres. There are, however, period fakes for low-value coins such as 5 cents from the 1930s.
Recent copies :
Here, too, there are several kinds. First there are molded and filled coins covered with a thin layer of silver. These are the ones found in Asian markets ... then on Ebay! Two vintages are often used: 1896 and 1897. Impossible to go wrong with the change in hand. Generally the reverse is particularly badly imitated, the imprint of the center of the coin being very blurred while the legend is clearer. On the internet, beware of these dates and beware of coins with yellow reflections or, common scam, coins photographed from afar with a slightly blurred focus... Appreciating the authenticity of a coin from a distance is not easy, You must always be careful not to bid on a coin that is not clearly legible on the photo.
piastre filled without silvering vintage 1897 - 18 g.
Alongside the filled coins, there are also bad billon coins. These are the ones that are intended for recasting in jewelry. They have also been offered to collectors for some time through tourists returning from vacation. They abound and it can be said that most of the piastres and divisionnaires which do not come out of a collection are copies.
This time hard to go wrong. The striking is crude and only distantly reminiscent of authentic coins. These piastres are found at fanciful dates such as a 10 cent 1906 while the 10 cents were not minted in 1906.
In addition to their easily recognizable appearance, most of these coins weigh several tenths of a gram less than the theoretical weight.
Currencies made up :
It is a specialist fraud which consists in modifying a current authentic currency in order to give it an added value by passing it off as a rare currency. Here it is clearly the collectors who are targeted since the fraud relates to the collection value of the currency and not to its exchange value. Of course, for this fraud to be possible, both an easy-to-find common currency and a rare currency must exist for the same type. These conditions are met for the piastres where we find two frequent frauds, the fake piastres at the year of 1890 and the fake piastres with secured edge at the year of 1947.
thank you that was very helpful. however, if it is a fake, how come i cant find any other fakes like it on the internet anywhere? you would think that with how well this one is made that there would be another floating around somewhere right? i cant find one anywhere on the net.
Quote: "clvngr420"thank you that was very helpful. however, if it is a fake, how come i cant find any other fakes like it on the internet anywhere? you would think that with how well this one is made that there would be another floating around somewhere right? i cant find one anywhere on the net.
If it is real, how come you cant find any other real ones like it on the internet anywhere?
A lot of fake coins like yours may have been sold a few years ago / destroyed by their owners, local products for tourists but not yet found on the internet.
see here: https://en.numista.com/forum/topic66912.html
We can find today fakes indochina here:
