Forged coins more valuable than the original?

Does anybody know of instances of this happening in numismatics? I find it a potentially fascinating field, since early forgeries will probably be far rarer than their originals.

A similar example in art would be Han Van Meegeren

The so-called "Henning nickels" (US 5 cent coins forged by Francis LeRoy Henning) are a lot more valuable than regular nickels of the same dates (which are very common).

Supposedly (I don't know the details), in early 19th century Latin America, it was fairly common to use platinum for counterfeits (as it was then cheaper than gold or silver). Platinum forgeries of silver coins are, of course, much more valuable than the original silver. But that's probably not what you're looking for.

Quote: "January First-of-May"​The so-called "Henning nickels" (US 5 cent coins forged by Francis LeRoy Henning) are a lot more valuable than regular nickels of the same dates (which are very common).
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​Supposedly (I don't know the details), in early 19th century Latin America, it was fairly common to use platinum for counterfeits (as it was then cheaper than gold or silver). Platinum forgeries of silver coins are, of course, much more valuable than the original silver. But that's probably not what you're looking for.

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Thanks, that's really coo informationl! I want a Henning nickel now

And the 19th century platinum counterfeits also sound pretty awesome. Not because they are platinum, but just the history behind it all.

I've sold several fakes for more than an original fetches. There is quite a niche for collectors of contemporary forgeries. One well known area is the evasion pennies, those are very popular, and if you want to know more about those ask Mark. Until recently he had a decent collection of them.

But basically, it was illegal to produce exact copies of official coins, but in the 1700s there was a loophole in that you could change the picture or legend on coins and it was legal to produce them. So counterfeiters produced coins that had legends like "George Rules" and took advantage of the fact that the majority of the population were illiterate and they circulated as regular coins.

http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinText/Evasion.1.html

Certainly this is the case for the Unofficial OMS strike (Contemporary Fake) of 1840 Rupee.

This particular coin below Was sold for $200+ in ebay,



http://www.ebay.com/itm/India-British-Contemporary-Unofficial-Rupee-in-Bronze-/381567130085?hash=item58d72c59e5%3Ag%3AndIAAOSwoudW4wSS&nma=true&si=7R6rwAwU2AseOrUFmC%252FVKwMGaOc%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

It's not in coinage, but the fake papers Admiral Canaris made for the Jews he disguised as Abwehr soldiers to get them out of the country are worth thousands. Obviously most on sale are counterfeits.

And there was a paper that claimed some of the coinage found at Qumran were contemporary counterfeits, used to fund the resistance.

I find the history behind contemporary counterfeits of any type really fascinating, so please keep bringing up these stories!