New coins. The difference between original coins and fakes Coins of the USSR are fake how to distinguish

A re-issued coin (specially minted coin, re-issued coin, re-issued coin) is a counterfeit coin, but with its own specifics.

They are made using dies that were either actually once used to make coins, or they were made specifically for collectors or display purposes.

New coins are also called coins that were issued outside government mints, but with original stamps. Reissued coins are generally not used in circulation.

What kind of coins are these?

Occasionally, out of ignorance, fakes are also considered remakes, and the professionalism of their production is often such that even experienced numismatists cannot understand that this is a remake or a copy made by a fraudster.

From a historical point of view, a specially minted coin is the same as a fake, albeit made with the approval of the mint. They are often used to deceive new collectors. That is why they should be considered separately from both the fake and the original coin and be able to distinguish them if they meet.

Signs of new coins

A remake has, but not always, signs by which they can be distinguished from the original:

Newly made stamps rarely exactly copy the design of the original. If the difference is established, then it is worth determining from the catalogs whether it is a crude fake or a remake.
Fantastic remakes. Most often, such re-issued coins are made using unpaired dies.
The remake and the original differ in sample or alloy. For reissue coins, which must be made from valuable materials, special alloys are not made; they are made from the alloy available at the time of minting.
The original can be distinguished from the remake by its different weight. At the same time, the mass of originals made of gold, silver and their alloys was always carefully controlled. But there are also exceptions. Copper coins, which were issued before the times of the USSR, could seriously deviate in weight from the standard weight.
Reproductions very often do not have patina or scratches, their surface is smooth. Only some of the gold and silver coins were polished. Most genuine copper coins have a damaged surface.
Reproductions are most often drawn up without a edge, less often - with an edge that does not correspond to the original, or the remake is edged manually. You can distinguish some remakes from the original by the letter H on the edge.
There are special remakes that do not have corresponding originals. For example, copper coins of various denominations dated 1806, while this year only five-kopeck coins were made from copper.

If the remake was minted on blanks of the same metal and with the same stamps as the original, then such a fake will often be impossible to distinguish.

This is, say, the “Gangut” ruble. The original was issued in 1914, a remake was already in the USSR in 1927, but most of the rubles known now are remakes, and they were made using genuine stamps, with the correct edge and material, weight and hallmark corresponding to the original.

Also, some coins that retain the appearance of the original, but are marked with a valid issue date, are not considered new.

For example, the “Sower” gold chervonets, issued in the USSR in 1923, was also produced in the period from 1976 to 1982, and a million of such chervonets were produced annually. Technically, the “Sower” is a remake, but it was recognized by the State Bank of the USSR, and the Bank of Russia is now recognized as a means of payment.

Some originals are completely impossible to obtain for collection - they either have not survived or were not produced at all.

This is a very rare case; in addition to the “Ganutsky” ruble, there are only six such remakes: 50 kopecks made of silver from 1699; 2 silver rubles issued in 1722 and 1726; single-sided copper coins minted in 1760 for 10 and 4 kopecks, as well as 1/2 kopeck; silver ruble 1827.

In general, in the 18th-19th centuries, remakes were produced on a small scale, but they were of very high quality. Collecting was a popular hobby among noble people.

Many collectors from the royal circle, using their connections, ordered the printing of coins of special mintage at mints.

As such, there was no ban on the issuance of collectible coins that are not involved in circulation. Many numismatists and scientists were against the remakes, and in 1890, Alexander III signed a decree banning their release. However, not everyone complied with the order. The “Reichel” and 1699 half-rubles, as well as the “Konstantinovsky” ruble, were clandestinely issued.

New coins in the history of the USSR

Later, in the USSR, the Soviet government repeatedly printed re-issued coins with the design of gold five- and ten-ruble notes from the tsarist era, which could hypothetically be useful for settlements with foreign countries that did not recognize Soviet currency.

Around the same time, in 1927, the USSR mints began issuing large numbers of new coins (for some of them the number has not yet been established, it is simply known that they minted a lot of them) for sale to collectors.

They were sold through numismatic auctions conducted by the Soviet Philatelic Association, but their price per set was high, and mostly they were bought not by citizens of the USSR, but by foreign collectors, often used as gifts for foreign politicians.

Already in the 30s, the USSR stopped issuing coins of special mintage.

In 1955, after the resumption of production of remakes, complete sets of USSR coins of 1931-52 were issued, with a circulation of about 50 copies.

In the 80s, in addition to the “Sower,” the USSR issued “Soviet commemorative and anniversary coins in denominations of 1 ruble, of improved quality.”

The attitude of numismatists towards new items is not always good; many consider them to be fakes, since they do not have historical value. However, they have collector's value. Therefore, remakes of a rare gold coin are inferior to it in price, and rare remakes of a well-preserved widespread coin will be more expensive than it.

The pursuit of profit often forces a person to invent the most skillful methods of creating illegal copies of something, including coins. There are a lot of ways to make “fake” coins, because the history of counterfeiting begins from the moment the first monetary units appeared.

Ways to create counterfeit coins

The most common method of falsification is casting (injection molding). First, the scammers create a die (casting mold) that imitates both sides of the counterfeit coin. Then the alloy is poured into it. The finished coin is coated with some valuable metal or cheap paint that resembles the desired metal in color. Previously, this method left flaws in the form of bubbles and unclear images on coins. With the development of electrolysis copying and centrifugal casting technologies, the presence of bubbles was reduced to a minimum, and the picture became clear, which created additional difficulties for numismatists in determining the authenticity of coins. However, improving technological approaches to casting counterfeits still does not help achieve the required weight parameters of coins.

Brass mold for casting counterfeit 20 kopecks. 1888

The modern minting equipment purchased by counterfeiters makes it possible to produce coins using a new copycat stamp, made according to the original sample by a skilled carver. This method is very expensive and labor-intensive, so it is used to create the rarest and, accordingly, the most expensive specimens. It is very difficult to distinguish coins stamped with the “new” stamp.

Another way to counterfeit coins is use of old stamp. A stamp that has already worn out its purpose, taken out illegally, can be used to make new coins. In this case, the money you receive will have fuzzy lines and some flaws in the images.

To add value to the coin, some dealers modify it and correct it: they mechanically alter the numbers, the designation of money yards, the initials of mintzmeisters, etc. There are a lot of ways to correct details on a coin: filing down characters; soldering letters; sawing two coins of different types in order to connect different obverses/reverses (the result is a coin of an allegedly unknown type); re-engraving of genuine coins to improve the damaged appearance (closing punched holes, smoothing out nicks, manually applying edge notches). To recognize a fake made way of improvement, you need to carefully study the catalog original of the coin in order to discern the slightest changes in the appearance of the copy.

Counterfeiting a coin by modification (the year on 50 kopecks has been corrected)

It is especially worth paying attention to creating fakes using electroforming, since electroplated copies are often made so skillfully that even an experienced craftsman will not always be able to distinguish it from the original. To create a galvanic copy, first, coin impressions are made from plaster or other plastic mass and covered with a thin layer of conductive material. The impressions are then placed in a bath of electrolytic solution. When current is passed through the solution, a layer of metal grows on the impression, which fills all the unevenness of the impressions. The wax casts are then detached from the ball of metal to create exact replicas of the sides of the coins. The metal sides are connected, adjusted and soldered so that the distance between them corresponds to the thickness of the original.

If this is where the work of counterfeiting ends, then a fake can be easily identified by its extremely light weight, unusual texture, adhesions on the edge, sound when dropped, inward movement of the sides of the coins when flattened with your fingers, and differences in the color of the metal when a small cut is made. But most often, scammers modify the counterfeit version. For example, to make the counterfeit heavier, reduce the level of “flexibility” of the sides when pressed and obtain a metallic sound, filler is added inside. To disguise the soldering points, copper coins are silvered or gold-plated, or equipped with a metal ring with the correct edge notch and accompanying elements.

Sometimes the deposition of metal on plaster forms continues until the thickness of the resulting counterfeit is equal to half the thickness of the original. Then the halves are soldered over the entire area of the back sides of the obverse/reverse. In this way, the result is a fake that is somewhat similar in weight to the original, does not bend and is more or less uniform in metal color.

Coins obtained from electroplating (soldered-in tape with a random pattern on the edge)

A high-tech way to counterfeit coins is laser embossing method, in which a scanned image of the original transmitted to a laser device is cut out of plastic. The resulting matrices are filled with alloys and soldered. Spectral analysis can easily identify a fake.

The most difficult process of counterfeiting coins is hand carving, when images on a smooth circle and edge are cut out by hand. In the absence of a clean circle, the image from a coin, for example, with a similar obverse, is cut off and another, necessary one, is applied on top of it.

Hand carved coin (counterfeits)

“Replicas”, “remakes” - fake or legal copy?

Are “remakes” and “replicas” of coins fakes? After all, at their core, counterfeit coins are illegal copies made later than the historical circulation time of the originals, for the purpose of selling to antique dealers, numismatists, and other lovers of rarities. And “remakes” and “replicas” (“restrikes” abroad) are also copies, only legalized, produced by state (sometimes private) money courts, often using genuine stamps.

"Replicas" coins are imitations of the originals. They are made from materials different from the original ones, but the image exactly or maximally replicates the image on the original coin. Such coins are not created with the aim of deceiving numismatists, since they either have special signs minted on them to notify them of copying, or some elements in the image are deliberately omitted so that even a novice numismatist can distinguish a copy from the original. An excellent example of a “replica” is the 1902 Leningrad Monetary Court 37.5 rubles–100 francs, minted in 1990 from copper-nickel alloy with gold plating. The circulation of donated “replicas” ordered by the All-Union Foreign Economic Association “International Book” is 50,000 pieces. The fact that this copy is a “replica” is indicated by the letter “P” placed next to the letter “G.” on the reverse. The current price of a copy reaches 2000 rubles. The coins are minted with original stamps. Today, state mints do not mint “replicas”; private individuals do this. Such imitations contain many deviations from the original. Examples include Chinese “replicas” of “Proof” quality coins made as souvenirs.

“Replica” 37.5 rubles–100 francs 1902 LMD

Chinese private souvenir “replica” (Proof quality, cupronickel, gilding, capsule, price about 700 rubles)

Nowadays, copies of the original coins of the past, produced by state money courts using original stamps, are called "remakes". There are “remakes” absolutely identical to the originals (for example, a remake of the Gagnutsky ruble of 1914, re-minted in 1927) and “remakes” with some changes (for example, a remake of the Soviet country’s gold chervonets “Sower” of 1923, re-produced in 1975– 1982, indicating the actual year of minting, and since 1977, with the designation on the edge of the mint: LMD, MMD).

“Remake” of the Gangut ruble

“Remake” of the golden chervonets “Sower”

There are a lot of “remakes” out there. A large number of copies of coins of Tsarist Russia and the USSR are known. Both circulation and commemorative coins are re-minted. For example, in 1988, “remakes” of 19 anniversary ruble coins of 1965–1986 were made with the inscription “1988 N” on the edge (“N” is a remake): remake of the ruble “50 years of Soviet power” of 1965; remake “40 years of victory over Germany” 1985; remake of the “International Year of Peace” 1986, etc.

Remakes of commemorative coins from 1965–1986.

So, there are a lot of ways to counterfeit coins, but they are all labor-intensive and expensive. “Replicas” and “remakes,” on the one hand, are also fakes, but they are official and not created for deception and easy money, so the production of legal imitating copies cannot be classified as a method of counterfeiting.

In 1987, it was decided to issue commemorative and commemorative coins of improved quality in special protective packaging. The same decree allowed the sale of coins to the public for collecting. In addition, the Ministry of Finance was allowed to produce additional commemorative and anniversary coins of the USSR of improved quality based on samples issued before 1987, indicating the new year of minting on them. In accordance with this decree, in 1988, 19 commemorative coins of improved quality were re-issued based on samples put into circulation before 1987, indicating the new year of minting and the letter “N” denoting a remake.

Remake A remake coin is a coin minted at the state mint with either genuine (with a change in edge) or newly minted dies (with changes in design details or date) in order to distinguish a remake from the original.

At its core, the Soviet remake is a replica of the first polished anniversary rubles of the USSR in Proof quality. The re-issue of coins was made in a new material - the composition of the copper-nickel alloy was white, while all the originals (regular, improved AC and polished old Proof) were made in the material of regularly minted coins, which had a yellowish tint. To distinguish the remakes from the original coins, the letter “N” and the year of re-minting were indicated on the edge.

Today it is difficult to find out the reason for the minting of new coins, but the main legend says that they were going to give sets of Soviet coins as gifts to the leaders of some countries who are avid numismatists, but there were no reserves of coins at the mints. Whatever it was, the remakes brought some variety to Soviet numismatics.

Since then, the Russian word novodel - novodel - has become firmly established in numismatic catalogs and is applied not only to Russian and Soviet coins, but denotes the official re-issue of coins by mints using original stamps. It should not be confused with the English reproduction, which is applied more to the counterfeiting of coins.

List of new commemorative and anniversary coins of the USSR 1965-1986, issued in 1988.

1. 1988-1965 1 ruble “Victory-20”, proof circulation 55 thousand.

2. 1988-1967 1 ruble “October-50”, proof circulation 55 thousand.

3. 1988-1975 1 ruble “Victory-30”, proof circulation 55 thousand.

4. 1988-1977 1 ruble “October-60”, proof circulation 55 thousand.

5. 1988-1981 1 ruble “Yu. Gagarin", proof circulation 55 thousand.

6. 1988-1981 1 ruble “USSR-Bulgaria Friendship”, proof circulation 55 thousand.

7. 1988-1981 1 ruble “USSR-60”, proof circulation 55 thousand.

8. 1988-1981 1 ruble “K. Marx", proof circulation 55 thousand.

9. 1988-1983 1 ruble “V. Tereshkova", proof circulation 55 thousand.

10. 1988-1983 1 ruble “Ivan Fedorov”, proof circulation 55 thousand.

11. 1988-1984 1 ruble "A. Popov", proof circulation 55 thousand.

12. 1988-1984 1 ruble “D. Mendeleev", proof circulation 55 thousand.

13. 1988-1984 1 ruble "A. Pushkin", proof circulation 55 thousand.

14. 1988-1985 1 ruble “Lenin-115”, proof circulation 55 thousand.

15. 1988-1985 1 ruble “Victory-40”, proof circulation 55 thousand.

16. 1988-1985 1 ruble “Youth Festival”, proof circulation 55 thousand.

17. 1988-1985 1 ruble "F. Engels", proof circulation 55 thousand.

18. 1988-1986 1 ruble “International Year of Peace”, proof circulation 55 thousand.

19. 1988-1986 1 ruble “M. Lomonosov", proof circulation 55 thousand.

Alexander Igorevich

Reading time: ~6 minutes

It is difficult to say when the first counterfeit coins appeared - probably around the same time as their originals. It is quite natural that counterfeit coins differed from original ones in the past in that they were inferior in quality of workmanship and materials. Today we will talk about how to distinguish a fake in our article.

However, if the age of such specimens is measured in centuries, then they are also of interest to collectors, since they themselves are antiques.

Another thing is modern counterfeits of coins that have collectible value and enormous value. They are of no historical value and were specially created for the purpose of profit. That is why it is important to know the signs by which you can distinguish an original from a fake.

Before reading this article, you need to know about – the article is about which coins are best to collect at the initial stage. It should be remembered that the coin may not be counterfeit, but only another variety of a certain specimen. For example, a coin of 10 kopecks from 2003, . For numismatists who collect coins of the USSR, an article will be of interest on how to distinguish an original from a fake 50 ruble coin from 1993.

How coins are counterfeited

Previously, the most common methods of counterfeiting were the banal dilution of the alloy or the replacement of the precious metal with similar-looking but cheaper analogues.

If we talk about the method of making counterfeit coins, then in the case of gold it was casting, since this metal pours very well. most often counterfeited by copying a stamp.

Naturally, such a method did not provide 100% similarity with the original, so fakes were quickly identified even with ordinary visual analysis. However, modern technologies make it possible to reduce the differences between counterfeit and original coins to a minimum.

Examples of counterfeit coins

Below we present photographs of some counterfeit coins, the differences from the originals are minimal.

Casting method
Minting with a counterfeit stamp

Casting method
Hand engraving

Many novice collectors, who do not yet really understand even the terms, find it difficult to define “proof of an old-timer from a new-made one.” For example, commemorative coins of the USSR issued in 1965-1986 were re-issued in 1988. This is the official version of the commemorative coins (replicas), the release of which was announced by the State Bank and the Ministry of Finance of the Soviet Union.

And it turns out that each “proof old maker” coin has its own duplicate. In the process of minting the “remakes,” the original stamps were used, but the letter H was engraved on the edge (edge of the coin), as well as the year of issue (1988).

Such changes were made specifically so that collectors and numismatists could easily determine which option is which.

The reverse and obverse of these commemorative Soviet duplicate coins minted by the Leningrad and Moscow mints were identical to the original, but the edge was different:

On a series of coins that were dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Soviet power, the following were minted: “1917-1967”, “Glory to the Great October Revolution”, “1988” and the imprint “N”, and between the entries there are three asterisks and at the end there is a dot.
On the commemorative coins issued for the 20th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany, respectively: “May 9, 1965”, “1988” and the mark “H”, which are separated by two asterisks and a dot.
On the edges of the remaining copies there is an engraving: “One ruble”, “1988”, “N”, separated by three dots.

Another conversation about fakes. When purchasing “remakes” of USSR commemorative coins at an auction, you must carefully study the presented copies. Since, under the guise of an original, scammers offer fakes that can be almost impossible to recognize from the original, even for the best numismatists.

On thematic forums there are often topics: “I bought a fake”, “they are selling a collection, please advise”, etc. The last time I almost fell for a full set of silver coins in denominations of 5 and 10 rubles was the 1980 Olympics.

That’s why I decided to buy coins, even if they are more expensive than on online auctions or bulletin boards, in well-known numismatic stores (I read reviews, communicate with representatives on social networks), if anything happens, you can make a return. We ask experts to leave their reviews and tips on how to distinguish a fake from an original.