Rajbarage
peterjhalford
The_One
Xavier
Some_Nerd
Also, could coin referees be allowed jurisdiction over collector coins, fantasy coins, local coins, contemporary counterfeits, and proto-coins?
The scope of referees has not changed for the moment. It still relies on the old categories Coins / Banknotes / Exonumia, even if they are not visible anymore. We'll modify that in a later step.
I, in particular, would like to know if there are any discussions in regards to contemporary counterfeits. I can already see many coin types under contemporary counterfeits are merely random modern coin replicas that were never used as fake coins for circulation, just some obvious cheap fakes selling on the street to tourists.
Due to the trickiness of identifying the “true fakes” out of tons of “fake fakes” in the market. I would like to suggest deleting contemporary counterfeits sub-category and move all the listings there into as coin replicas under Medals, unless we can find the referees with enough knowledge on contemporary counterfeits of all issuers.
Likewise, I would like contemporary counterfeits removed from the coins section and moved into tokens or wherever.
I would like to second this and further ask that contemporary counterfeits be linked to the originals, as a way of easily redirecting someone who is curious to possible forgeries.
That's an interesting problem. If the suggestion of moving “contemporary counterfeits” to tokens (not medals) were attempted, we would have to go back to the origins of coinage, through the Roman Empire ("fourrés") and its fragmentation in Late Antiquity, the Middle Age, and beyond, where contemporary counterfeits of all sorts were passed as real coins. In colonial North America spurious banks issued all sorts of spurious “banknotes", many of which circulated heavily. Sometimes we're not even sure whether an issuer is or isn't legitimate.
Perhaps the solution is to leave things as they are for most of the catalogue since, unfortunately, crooks trying to fool the system for a quick profit is a fact of History — hence counterfeiting laws have existed throughout history. Counterfeits had more impact on national currencies than any of the deluxe junk produced for the Cook Islands or Niue. In this sense counterfeits are “monetary”.
I think there is an exception, and it should be based on ethical considerations. Counterfeits of coins or notes that are currently legal tender in the issuing country should either: (1) not be listed at all, or (2) be listed without the possibility of adding such items to your collection. A complementary possibility would be (3) to warn of their existence (possibly with an external link) on the real coin or note page. Current counterfeits, therefore, should be provided only as information or warning. A link could be provided to relevant web pages (police report on counterfeits, counterfeiting laws, numismatic publications about counterfeits, etc.).
As for modern “fake fakes” of Greek, Roman or any other ancient or modern coins, Soviet or any other military medals, etc. etc., they should go to the token section somewhere.
