FORGERIES

Imagine the consternation on the gentleman's face when the dealer's terse, considered opinion was - 'six months to a year, with time off for good behaviour ! '.

This particular instance is not an isolated one. Several times each year, forged or tampered Australian numismatic items surface. In many cases, the work is of such a high standard that only an expert, who regularly handles bona-fide examples of the item, could be expected to spot the forgery.

The moral of the story is clear. When purchasing, ensure that you know and trust the person you are dealing with. A reputable dealer, particularly with high value rare items, will provide you with a written guarantee as to the authenticity of the item, accompanied by a detailed photographic record.

The following table sets out some of the known, high quality, Australian forgeries and tampered coins which have been sold as the real item in recent years:

1923 Halfpenny	Seen as a forged item and also as a tampered 1928 halfpenny.
1930 Penny	Seen as a moulded or cast item, as a tampered 1936 penny and also inlaid where the centre of the zero has been scooped out. All London die 1930 pennies found so far have proved to be forgeries.
1937 Pattern Penny	Seen as a tampered 1947 penny and also inlaid.
1922/1 Overdate Threepence	Inlaid where the inside of the 2 has been scooped out.
1942 Melbourne (No Mintmark) Threepence	Usually created by filing the San Francisco or Denver mintmark off 1942 threepences struck in the U.S.A.
1932 Florin	Seen as a cast item, recut from a 1922 florin and also as a solder recut where additional metal has been added to the coin and shaped.
Holey Dollars	Found manufactured from Spanish 8 Reales (Dollar) in much the same way as William Henshall produced them - but almost 2 centuries late ! Beware of reproductions, die struck forgeries and the contemporary Hong Kong and Manila Forgeries.
Dump	Found as forged or cast items. Beware of reproductions.
Adelaide Pounds	Passed as forged or cast items of both Adelaide Pound varieties.
Kangaroo Office Patterns	Found as forged or cast items. The dies for the gold Kangaroo Office issues were not destroyed. The possibility of later restrikes from these dies cannot be discounted.

Forgeries are not just a recent phenomenon. The Sydney Morning Herald, on December 19, 1849, reported that 'on Saturday night, two bad half-crows were passed on a man named Timothy Farrell, whilst selling vegetables in George Street. The men who passed the spurious coins were not taken into custody'.

In the depression, a florin would feed a family for many days while a five shilling coin represented a full week's wages and more. Enterprising individuals, without gainful employment found many ingenious methods to manufacture replicas of the then circulating coinage. Most of these forgeries (known as contemporary forgeries) were of types which are not considered rare in numismatic terms today and therefore attract little attention or publicity.