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Comment by mootothemax | Hacker News Reader

> I've never spotted a fake - they must be very good

Some regions seem to get more than others, I used to see large numbers in the change I got in London.

The quickest "tell" for me is the lettering on the edge. Some of it is shockingly poor quality and almost looks like someone took a soldering iron to draw it on.

The next time a machine rejects one of your pound coins, take another look at it, there's a good chance it's fake.

EDIT: Here's the first page I found looking for example images:

http://www.larkinweb.co.uk/miscellany/counterfeit_one_pound_...

To my eye they look really shonky.

Edit II: A couple more examples:

http://www.cryst.co.uk/category/fake-pound-coins/

http://www.employees.org/~tw/quids/quids.html

FinalEditIPromiseNoReally:

Check out this stack, they're almost comically bad:

http://blog.alism.com/wp-content/2006/08/coinstack.jpg

(found on this blog: http://blog.alism.com/fake-one-pound-coins-part-three/)

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Interesting. Thanks for the links.

I have indeed had some pound coins which were tatty round the edges and had to be pushed through a self-service checkout several times or wouldn't even go through at all. I still hadn't realised they might be fake, though.

I have noticed that a lot of old 10p coins are noticeably a lot thinner (presumably worn down rather than starting out thinner) than new ones. Is this as it should be or should I start looking at these with suspicion too?

>I still hadn't realised they might be fake, though.

Yeah, I was the same until a machine failed and a colleague said that the coin might be fake.

There is something rather delicious in the fact that we're so used to machines and computers failing that the idea the coin could be wrong never entered our heads!

True rage is having a machine reject your money for overpriced parking while you stand under one of those anti-loitering alarms.

It would be even better had one received the money in question as change from such a machine...

I was standing in front of two vending machines the other day: one for food, one for drink, and all I had was a $5 bill. I wanted food, but the food machine would only take $1s and coins. On the other hand, the drink machine took $5s.

So I put my money in the drink machine and hit the coin return. Nothing happened. I tried a few times and figured the coin return was broken or that it was out of coins. The only thing in the machine was soda, which I can't drink if I don't want to trigger my acid reflux. But I bought one anyway since otherwise my money was "wasted", thinking I'd give the soda to a friend later.

Of course, once I bought the soda, the machine spat out all my change: 3 quarters and 2 dollar coins - now I finally had coins that I could buy food with. Naturally, the food machine didn't accept dollar coins. Most machines here don't, so no food for me.

The food machine accepted coins and $1 bills, but not $1 coins or other bills? It almost sounds intentionally designed to be as difficult to use as possible. (I realize the $1 coin is larger and newer, and accepting larger denomination bills would mean dispensing more change, but still.)

USPS vending machines are well-known as the main non-bank source of $1 coins. (E.g. insert a $10 bill for $7 worth of stamps, and get 3x $1 coins back.) IIRC, a long time ago they didn't actually take these coins as payment in the first place...

I want with a guy who had fake money come out an ATM in the middle of Cusco, Peru. I offered to buy it off him as a souvenir, and offered about half face value. I was out bid by 2 others and in the end he decided to keep it as a souvenir.

That was pretty common in Peru when I visited. Or shop keepers giving it back as change.

I have noticed that a lot of old 10p coins are noticeably a lot thinner (presumably worn down rather than starting out thinner)

Prior to about 2010, 5p and 10p coins really were thinner. They were changed from copper/nickel alloy (Cupronickel) to nickel-plated steel to reduce costs. But in order to maintain the same weight, the coins had to be made thicker.

Didn't know that - thanks!

You can get answers on so many topics on HN...

Oh shit! That's why they sometimes don't fit 5 to a section in my coin holder. I thought it was just poor quality control on the 5p coins.

Great links, I still wouldn't notice.

Those coins just look like they've been battered a bit too much, I just assume lots of coins get really rough treatment.

I think it's really hard for a layperson to detect these. I've been checking for months my change and still havne't spotted a convincing example. Every blog or page explaining them requires generally deep knowledge around what dots should be where or what the correct symbology is for the issue year, etc.

It's lettering/patterns/quality on the edges that I find I can spot counterfeits for, and misalignment is a dead giveaway - see GP's first link for examples of that where it's a few degrees off, or completely reversed.

I find this incredibly interesting.

Your second link made me laugh, both because the blogger guessed that I was admiring a specific photo and the gradual reveal of the true level of the incompetence on display.

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