I do a clubnight and after checking the monies on Saturday I noticed we had a few fake pound coins. We charge £3 to get in so we tend to have a big turnover of pound coinage through the night and I don't want to put them back into circulation. Does any body know of a quick and easy way to test if the are fakes whilst people are coming into the venue.

Probably not much help, but you can scratch the side of fake pound coins with some other metal (can't remember what it is.) that doesn't scratch real coins. Will try and remember more :suspect:

Originally posted by carcrash
............ and I don't want to put them back into circulation. ...........

I am pleased to hear this and sympathise with your problem, but I assume that you do realise that it is illegal for you (or anyone else) to pass them on/put them back into circulation.


Here is a similar question from two years ago!

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3555

I know it's illegal, thats why I want to check. I have approx £200 in pound coins. We have not noticed the problem before but it seems to have started cropping up a couple of weeks ago.
Cheers for the link

Originally posted by carcrash
I do a clubnight and after checking the monies on Saturday I noticed we had a few fake pound coins. We charge £3 to get in so we tend to have a big turnover of pound coinage through the night and I don't want to put them back into circulation. Does any body know of a quick and easy way to test if the are fakes whilst people are coming into the venue.

the way i used to do it at the bar 101 was to clink them together in my hand fake ones make a totally different sound.......btw a mutual friend of ours was the worse culprit.....

Who is that? out of interest.

They do generally 'feel' different. Make a clinking sound when rattled together with others. You can just 'tell' theres a different noise (hard to describe LOL). Also scraping them will usually uncover a silver colour underneath. The last thing really is to check the edging. A lot wont have the indents or will but look different, on the whole though easy to spot once you've seen a few fakes.

Show your staff the fakes, let them get a feel of them. They do feel different, lighter, cheaper and look 'yellower' in a lot of cases.

:)

Scratch the edge of one with another, the fake ones are usually lead and therefore soft. It will expose the silver colour underneath.

The circumference may have no edge detail at one point, presumably where the metal was poured in from.

The colouring is often poor as well.

Unsure? Wish I was, I've been landed with a few, I'm just waiting for the scrap price of lead to increase!!!!!

while we were in skeggy this year, one of the girls who worked on the campsite told us its a huge problem at seaside resorts - she said some nights they found over 50% were fakes.....
I now check every pound coin i get, after getting landed with several fakes!!

what do the police say about it? i would have thought theyd want to know if someone is passing you fake coins?
hope you get your problem sorted...

I've not noticed it as a problem before but now it has been brought up I have to deal with it.
Thank for the advice ect

Not sure if someone may have already said it or not... as i only skimmed through the replies...

You can test it with your teeth... as the material they use is alot softer and your teeth will leave marks...

Not nice to do... but its one way of checking :)

I think the best and most convenient way to check is to look at the writing round the edges. You know - the bit that says Decus et Tutamen/ Pleidiol Wyf Im Gwlad / Nemo me Impune Laccesit etc - the quality is awful, and barely resembles proper letters. Quick and easy, and saves your teeth! Unless the quality has improved, all the ones I've seen have been well dodgy around the edges!

I've recently found one in my possession. The quality is very poor and the colour is totally wrong.

Might sound daft but a way we used to do it when i worked in Barclays was to get a pretty tough stapler and put the coin between the teeth of it!

When pressing down the teeth of the stapler tend to leave an insentation in the fakes, but im sure you can do this by stabbing the coin with any sharp implement!

Why not just take them to the police ?

Originally posted by poppins
Why not just take them to the police ?

...because the police will probably put them back in circulation via the dougnut shops :heyhey:

How did i know that spyro was goin to give us once again his true words of wisdom! lol

What can coppers do bout it though in all honesty?

These coins are quite easy to cash in through normal banking process, because if you bag em up in £20's as usual, when it comes to weight, they should be just about the same in a full bag, but id only reccommend putting one in each £20.

Not that i would do this myself and i accept no liability for those who do!

Originally posted by poppins
Why not just take them to the police ?

Dont think they would take time out from their T break to bother......its a NATIONAL problem actually....

I've also noticed this in my job, loads around recently which appeared very suddenly.

If you drop a real pound coin on it's side it will bounce, if it's a fake it won't. Also if you rub a coin on grease proof paper or reciept roll it will leave a mark if it's fake and won't if it's real.

Originally posted by SallyLaLaLa
I've also noticed this in my job, loads around recently which appeared very suddenly.

If you drop a real pound coin on it's side it will bounce, if it's a fake it won't. Also if you rub a coin on grease proof paper or reciept roll it will leave a mark if it's fake and won't if it's real.

Then what do you do ? put them back into circulation ?

Originally posted by poppins
Why not just take them to the police ?

fairly obvious i'd have thought. He doesn't want to accept them in the first place, the police won't reimburse you for them.

Originally posted by poppins
Then what do you do ? put them back into circulation ?

I suppose youve got 2 choices

1) Do what the criminals are doing and put them back into circulation

2) Cut your losses and get rid, but be more vigilant in future.

Look! - I've found a load more here:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=pound+coin&hl=en

Don't try and spend these folks - they're jpegs (you can by the fact they're on the screen)

;-)

Originally posted by meersbrook
Look! - I've found a load more here:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=pound+coin&hl=en

Don't try and spend these folks - they're jpegs (you can by the fact they're on the screen)

;-)

Thanks for the link. I have now printed off a few and will be using them in a few of the bars on the weekend, should save me a bob or 2 :)

Originally posted by poppins
Why not just take them to the police ?



Yes, good idea. Just go to your nearest police station and start talking about "bent coppers"....


;)

As of quite recently there are some 50p's going round now too. Due to the way they are made there is a small area on the side of every coin where it has been broken from the mould. Simply checking the coins for this scratching is enough to know whether the coin is legitamate or not.

Well if the police aren't interested...take them to a casino and drop them in the slots, you might get lucky.....then again you might get paid your winnings in fake pounds :hihi:

Originally posted by poppins
Why not just take them to the police ?

they'd nick him for possestion:|

unlucky which club was it

Originally posted by J-Blaze
As of quite recently there are some 50p's going round now too. Due to the way they are made there is a small area on the side of every coin where it has been broken from the mould. Simply checking the coins for this scratching is enough to know whether the coin is legitamate or not.

But why bother making fake 50ps? You'd have to make millions of them for it to be worthwhile.

Matt - empty your PM box!

Apparently there is about £15 million of fake pound coins out there :rant:

This site tells you what the edge inscription should be for each year's issue of pound coins, in case the clink or scratch tests don't work :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_One_Pound_coin

:thumbsup:

In my line of work i must have come across hundreds of fake quids. What is starting to crop up more and more is coins from other countries that are exactly the same size weight and colour as pound coins. I won't say what currency but they are worth only a few pence each and work in all vending/fruit machines. You have to look carefully to spot that it isn't the queen on the face.

Just put 'em back into circulation. If it walks like a duck..... :D Plus the police don't care, too busy fannying about with football matches. :hihi:

Originally posted by poppins
Then what do you do ? put them back into circulation ?

Em, I send them up to the cash office with the till and leave it to them.

Originally posted by pinlock
Yes, good idea. Just go to your nearest police station and start talking about "bent coppers"....


;)

good one :D

the best thing to do is keep a compass behind the counter and stab each one its simple wuick and any fakes will get holes in straight away, as other people have said the metal is really soft.