Numismatic Forgery by Charles M Larson

[Mister T]

Has anyone read this book? Is it any good? Is it still relevant today (the content that is)?

[Basilstate]

Nope,just did a Google and it appears to be USA based.
I was getting it mixed up with a Oz Book on fakes from the 1970's but i don't know who the author was.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1002406.Numismatic_Forgery

[Mister T]

What was the Australian book called?

[Greg McDonald]

The second edition of my book, Collecting and Investing in Australian Coins and Banknotes 1991 had a fairly extensive chapter on counterfeit and fake coins and banknotes.  I've got about 600 books and booklets related to numismatics in my library but don't have anything like what's described above.

[Basilstate]

What was the Australian book called?

I'll try and find out Mr. T,it was leant to me in the the late 1970's early 1980's,basically a rehash of Manders/Twibble,Chinese Shillings and other Depression era scams as well as 1930 & 1923 fakes.
It also included the forgery of the 1966 Ten Dollar note and, IIRC, other attemped scams.

Someone on here should remember it.


This was an early Manders/Twibble expose but little information was released by Police at the time so a lot of dot joining by the author you would think.

https://www.coincuriosity.com/view/manders-and-twible-counterfeit-florins.html

https://tasmaniantimes.com/2014/10/the-shadow-our-first-undercover-cop/

[Greg McDonald]

That sounds like an interesting book.  Does anyone know where it was printed.  Has anyone tried to source it by the ISBN library code index?

[Basilstate]

That sounds like an interesting book.  Does anyone know where it was printed.  Has anyone tried to source it by the ISBN library code index?

No Greg but my Brother is trying to track it down,it had an obscure title that gave no indication of the contents.

There is an opportunity for you to write a book on scams/fakes/cons etc and bring everything up to date.

Since the last books from the 1960/70's  David Gee would fill the content on his own.
Add the Micklebergs Perth Mint scam,the RAM fiasco where a employee walked out of the Mint each day loaded with $2 coins,Chinese high quality fakes still flooding the market with Gold Bars & Coins in Perth Mint packaging being the most dangerous. 
During the 1980/90's up here on the North Coast of NSW we had the Flying Cotton ring in,fake $50 notes appearing on and off for over 2 years,Military types from Qld. coming down to hit NC Clubs with 20c blanks manufactured in a RAAF workshop,Police put a blanket on Info. but apparently it was a last ditch attempt to make money before the $1 machines took over.
That's just off the top of my head but obviously there are more Oz scam/fakes to be added.

[Mister T]

I think there are some more recent American books on fakes but I haven't read any of them.

[Greg McDonald]

Hi Basilstate
Yes, there are an endless amount of such stories.  Some are quite amusing. I remember doing the Singapore show in 1997 when a USA dealer rushed up to my table and asked if I wanted to buy some off-cut $10 bicentenary polymer notes of 1988.  These to or 12 notes were guillotined right through the centre.  My first impression was to think how such obvious errors could have escaped from quality control.  It became clear when I checked the serial numbers.  It was obvious that some wag had carefully sliced up an uncut sheet offered to collectors in 1988. The conman was clever to offer the well known Australian issue to a foreign dealer in an equally foreign dealer.  When told the bad news, the clearly upset dealer said he thought the notes were genuine and offered around $1,000 for each note.

[Basilstate]

Yes,always someone dreaming up a Con/Scam.
Singapore incident reminds me of a scam around the same time,well known Qld. Dealer,still around,got caught with shipwreck coins back in the 1990's,very professional scam from the USA that targeted dealers with fakes.

[gnome61]

I got a copy, only part way through it. Being an American Publication it does relate to a lot of the American coin forgeries of course, things like adding a mintmark etc. That is actually pretty cool how that is done. Has quite a bit of technical procedures in there as well as some of the machines required to do some tasks but goes through it step by step. Quite a few pics in there which does help as well. It is clearing up some of the questions I have on forgeries. Still working my way through it at the moment when time permits. 


 

[gweidion]

I clearly don't have the mind of a forger. When you said "adding mint marks" I immediately thought Wow, adding a CC mint mark to a Philadelphia Morgan dollar never even occurred to me, until now. What a great way to increase your coin's perceived value.

[Basilstate]

I got a copy, only part way through it. Being an American Publication it does relate to a lot of the American coin forgeries of course, things like adding a mintmark etc. That is actually pretty cool how that is done. Has quite a bit of technical procedures in there as well as some of the machines required to do some tasks but goes through it step by step. Quite a few pics in there which does help as well. It is clearing up some of the questions I have on forgeries. Still working my way through it at the moment when time permits. 

If you can do a summary on here when your finished reading.
I've read over the years many egs. of Coin forgeries/scams and how they were acted.
Fooling dealers is a difficult task but the real Pro's seem to be able to do it.
We had a scammer here in Sydney in the 1980/90's,he was apparently a Dental Technician and used his expertise and tools of his trade to alter Coins and Stamps.
Some Sydney dealers nicknamed him 'The Greek'  but that was probably another scammer in Melb.
Seemed to disappear in the late 1990's when the Internet started,probably easier for his victims/Police/Dealers to track him and his work.
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/a-sticky-business-20141009-113l4m.html