Things have been relatively quiet lately but here is a subject I have not discussed so far but this is another general area where you can easily be tricked or fooled.
In Saudi Arabia, the only true currency is their own andnothing else is regarded as coinage and must be stamped. There is no 22 as far as I know so coins or anything else may be stamped 21 and I have seen this before. It also appears that some fake sovereigns have been produced with 21 in raised characters in the field on the obverse. Take a look at this item:
Nobody should be fooled by this piece of rubbish but the seller claimed thatit wasan EF 1918M sovereign and with more than three days to go, there was a bid on this object.
The item is a fake and a poor one at that and cannot be described as a coin, because it is not and never has been legal tender.. However, this is alleged to be gold and as it is not hallmarked - of course, no coins would be hallmarked - the seller is committing an offence in describing this as gold, instead of yellow metal, by the Hallmarking Act.
I told the seller that it was a fake and his reply was:
Lol. There is always one isnt there.
This was a gift from an ex girl friends father who was quite wealthy. He had quite a collection of sovereign coins he had collected on his travels around the world working.
So next time before you go pretending that you are the world wode expert on sovereigns at least get your facts right.
The spelling and punctuation are the seller's, not mine and I will not burden you with my reply.
Quite simply, this may or may not be a piece of scrap gold and should be avoided. Stamped, but genuine sovereigns arejust defaced coins and worth no more than scrap - you might as well buy an ordinary bullion coin. A so-called coin with the number 21 raised in the field will always be an imitation at best and a fake at worst and its gold content unproven.
Finally, after challenging my assessment and asking for evidence, the seller did remove this listing but then he put it up again, still claiming it to be gold and a sovereign coinand it was bought. The seller assured me on 11 September 2008 that he would be accepting the return of the item and be refunding the buyer's payment. The buyer has since also confirmed this and so, given the seller's otherwise perfect eBay reputation, I have agreed to remove anything that would identify this seller. He has also said that he would be getting the thing assayed and probably sell it as scrap gold to a bullion dealer, to be melted down.
This rubbish is not limted to 1918 sovereigns and I have noticed that the 1911 sovereign is more often faked or defaced.
The important message here is that if a coin shows a hallmark, it is not a coin and if it has been defaced in some manner, except where a coin is extremely rare,its valueis reduced to its bullion value. Fakes are only worth their bullion value and the problem with all of these is that you cannot be sure of the gold content until you own it and test it.
Stolen Photos - A Worrying Situation
A new problem is appearing on eBay and that is the stealing of photos of coins from a web site by sellers claiming to have the coin or one of equal quality. These high quality photos. These photos usually come from one of the Chard Coins web sites. Chard Coinsisa perfectly legitimate and long-standing coin dealership that has a respected presence on eBay.
In the past week - end of August 2008 - there have already been three sellers stealing photos. The first of these quietly removed the listings after I reported them. The seller in the USA is claiming that stealing the photos is acceptable because the coins are at least as good as the pictures. The items are 330265107876 and 330265105629 and the seller is andrews516.
Here are two photos of a purported 1982 half sovereign, item 160276640985:
This seller, choice740,is so cynical that they have stolen photos of a sovereign and I have reported them to Lawrence Chard and to eBay who may or may not act, based on their dismal track record. Anyone else who chooses to steal Lawrence's photos should note that he always spots these thefts andtakes actionagainst the eBayer on each and every occasion.
The advice I give to all buyers is never to buy a coin without a decent photo and if the photo is obviously stolen, do not even consider the coin.
Now, let us welcome a new crook on the block, jenc4266 and their lovely 1838 sovereign, 250288972760:
Once again, photos stolen from Lawrence Chard but thisfailed crookstole a photo of an 1871 reverse, hence the die number that would not appear on a real1838 sovereign. When you read that collection is not possible but they are happy to accept cash or cheques and their claim that the pictures are of the actual coin, you hear echoes of the crook I caught in Wales - see my fourth guide. It is August 31 today and I will be keeping a very close watch on this one and have a meeting scheduled with a police officer tomorrow on a different fraud and will attempt to have the "seller's" account suspended. However, suffice it to say that you should never buy anything from this - hopefully, failed - crook.
The threat was sufficient for this idiot to end the listing early and I now have some illiterate and abusive emails from him. He does not deny anything but accuses me of being a busy body (sic).
If you check out this moron, you will discover that he has a high and 100% rating and frankly, I am now of the opinion that there is now a greater than ever risk that an honest eBayer can become rotten.
Fake Jubilee Head Sovereigns
These do appear from time to time and when they are incorrectly dated, they are easy to spot but some are rather more subtle. Take a look at the two obverses below that come from coins that appear to be 1891 London sovereigns.
The first of these is item 350128794602 which was listed on 20 November 2008 by seller misiu74 and the second is a photo of one of my own coins. The differences are many and you should examine these closely to avoid future grief yourself.
The reverse of the coin is slightly more convincing, as you can see below - ignore the length of the tail because there are two genuine varieties for that year.
I pointed him towards a real coin on eBay when I told him that his own coin was a fake but he told me thathis was genuine and I have now reported him to eBay and have sent these photos toeBay by email!
A Reminder About a New Breed of Australian Liars
It may be one liar or several but please read the latest news about sellers claiming inflated values for gold sovereigns; I have updated my fourth guide for this scam.
Well, I will be telling you more horror stories as I find them andI should be happy to give you my advice - as I have given it others, if you contact me on lapidary99 at hotmail.com. In the meantime please move on to the next guide, which is part 6 of a work in progress.
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