An interesting feature of UK coinage in the early to mid part of the last century was something commonly known as ‘silvering’. This was specifically used with Half Penny coins up to 1966 and was done in an attempt to fake shilling coins using a much less valuable coin. According to popular belief, at a quick glance, a Half Penny covered in silver paint could look like a shilling if presented on its obverse in amongst other coins.
I'm not sure if this was particularly sucessful, or if it is something worthy of adding to the catalogue, but it is an interesting numismatics fact and I regularly find ‘silvered’ Half Penny coins in auction lots of older British coinage. See below.
Kinda like the USA 1883 “Racketeer” V nickel, Wich was gold-plated to look like a $5 Half eagle.
But is this considerd counterfeiting?
Not really counterfeiting - much more like deception or fraud. Counterfeiting implies that something had been created, whereas this is more of a basic or simple adaptation. It may have even been part of the reasoning behind some of the modern features of present day coin designs, many of which have been adapted to help the partially sighted.
Back in the day in the UK children at school were invited to bring old bronze coins to school to take part in electroplating . There are loads of these that always surface normally in bulk lots at auctions. No deception just a tool for learning
Back in the day in the UK children at school were invited to bring old bronze coins to school to take part in electroplating . There are loads of these that always surface normally in bulk lots at auctions. No deception just a tool for learning
I mean you can't prove that silvered coins were not used for fraud.
In much the same way the double florin was not continued after 1890 due to it looking like the crown which was in circulation in size, people paying with a double florin were sometimes given the change for a crown which affected the businesses at the time. Also farthings were chemically darkened by the mint as some tried to pass them off as half sovereigns by shining them up.
