I was presented with the following, 2011 UK £2 coin by someone who spotted that the queen's portrait was different. Upon inspection, I believe it to be a poor fake. The wording around the rim is also indistinct, though I am unable to get much of a decent picture of it.
I should welcome a second opinion, as I have not heard much about fake £2 coins.
Wow, I've never seen a fake £2 coin before, but that is definitely a fake in my opinion.
The hair and crown detail is extremely crude, laughable almost.
Also, the font used for the IRB initials should be a serif font, the one on this coin clearly isn't.
Maybe they're practicing their fakes, for when the new £1 coin comes out. But why bother, as no-one will be expecting fake £2 coins.
http://www.facebook.com/NumismaticsUK
I'm not an expert in any kind of coins, but I reckon I'm good at research and will do my best to help. Feel free to tell me my identifications/valuations/gradings are wrong. It's the only way I'll learn.
http://www.facebook.com/NumismaticsUK
I'm not an expert in any kind of coins, but I reckon I'm good at research and will do my best to help. Feel free to tell me my identifications/valuations/gradings are wrong. It's the only way I'll learn.
Cool! I see from those articles, published at Christmas last year (about three weeks ago) that the British authorities at the time had only found ONE fake £2 coin on a sweep of Britain. Well, here's a second!
Always nice to get a second opinion.
I can't take credit for finding it, that accolade goes to my source who must remain anonymous, but is not a coin collector. My source said "it just jumped out at me. The neck, hair and crown of the Queen's portrait were different."
My source didn't consider the possibility of a fake, they thought it might be a "rare and valuable oddity". As I say, not a coin collector!
I got that fake £2 over 9 months ago, and mentioned it on the above topic at the time. Since then I have had another (can't find it at the moment - I kept both). Also, someone else I know has had one, and showed me it when I met him to buy some coins off him. So only those three I have seen so far.
I got a fake £2 over 9 months ago, and mentioned it on the above topic at the time. Since then I have had another (can't find it at the moment - I kept both). Also, someone else I know has had one and showed me it when I met him to buy some coins off him. So only those three I have seen so far.
I don't know about you, but most people around here, myself included, don't check coins that closely when we get change. A cursory glance, and then pay for the groceries or parking with it. Its only when you do a magnified scan or inspection that the irregularities become obvious, and who scrutinises every current coin they get in change with a magnifying glass before leaving a shop? (Quite a few collectors with OCD I should suspect <g>) I don't even bother with the fake £1s any more, I just pass them straight on without a thought, its only when a vending machine refuses them I even notice them!
http://www.facebook.com/NumismaticsUK
I'm not an expert in any kind of coins, but I reckon I'm good at research and will do my best to help. Feel free to tell me my identifications/valuations/gradings are wrong. It's the only way I'll learn.
If you do a search of everything you can find on the internet you will find that there are two industrial-scale types of bi-metallic fake £2 now doing the rounds:
(i) with glaringly deep-yellow outsides and unusual 'glossy' centres, faces have a soft-focus images of the real thing. I understand that the outside is Cu-Zn binary brass and the centres are stainless steel. E.g. the one you posted pics of that you refer to Zac, you should find the centre is attracted to a decent magnet. The edge inscription superficially appears staggeringly close to the real thing of pre-2012 'technology' £2, as your photo showed, and appears to have been traced pantographically off a real one (to make the collar die). They have been appearing for about 2 years, with various purported dates 2008-12. A similarly accurate edge inscription appears on some older coated lead or solder-made fake £2, with purported dates circa 2000;
(ii) like yours above Matt, the first reported like this had pinkish/rosé centres but they then got the colours right like yours. All have been dated 2011, these numerals more widely spaced than on a real one; the faces all derive from the same 'spoof' master artwork, though possibly with some variation in the position of dots around the Queen. Likewise there is one, irregular, master edge inscription. I understand the correctly-coloured ones are made of nickel-brass and cupronickel very close to the real thing and can fool many coin machines. Have been appearing for at least a year in the correct colours, and a few months before with rosé centres. The Queen's head is the same master image as has appeared on some of the 'spoof artwork' fake £1.
I mainly follow/contribute to the CCF forum and in a further twist, someone recently posted pics there of a 'personalised' fake £2, very new looking with different imitation artwork again, no edge inscription but that very same spoof Queen's portrait image. My theory is that this one at least was procured from China, but any fake entrepreneur based in China with the capability would sooner fake Euro coins since less metal/volume would go further.
That December news coverage referred to fake Euro coins but had been spun into a fake £2 story by the Times. The Mail picking it up however did illustrate it with a (i) variety image!
All of these were 'technology' imitations but none has achieved the central 'moving hologram' right. So they will certainly have an easier time with the new Britannia reverse!
