Are these the most sophisticated fake £2 coins?
£2 coins were introduced in 1998 to prevent against counterfeiting and were the first bi-metallic coins to enter circulation in the UK.
£2 coins were first issued into circulation in 1998
Made with two different metal components, £2 coins are very complicated to manufacture and very difficult to counterfeit… or so we believed.
As we know, 1 in 30 £1 coins are fake. The Royal Mint are so concerned, they’ll be introducing a new 12-sided £1 coin in March which is billed to become the most secure circulating coin in the world.
But, this means that counterfeiters are now turning their attention to the £2 coin.
To begin with, early £2 counterfeit coins were just a lump of led tin alloy, spray painted to look like a genuine £2 coin and were easy to tell apart from the real thing.
Now, they’re becoming a lot harder to spot, even by professionals. Some fake £2 coins are even being accepted in vending machines and car parking machines.
So how many fakes are out there and who’s responsible?
Fraudsters require a highly sophisticated press to produce bi-colour coins. It’s thought that there are hundreds of thousands of fake £2 coins in circulation and is definitely a form of organised crime.
Can you spot one?
There are a few simple ways to tell if you have a fake £2 coin. One of the most obvious ways to spot a fake is by comparing the quality of the writing on the edge inscription to a genuine coin and also checking that the edge inscription matches the design.
However there are still some fake £2 coins that pass the two tests above.
According to experts, fakes can usually be detected by the weight. Genuine £2 coins should weigh 12g, but these remarkable new counterfeit £2 coins are also weighing in at 12g.
Each UK denomination is made up of different compositions which are agreed between The Royal Mint and HM Treasury but the exact amount is kept top secret.
The only way to find out for definite if the coin is real or fake is for it to be x-rayed by a special machine which gives a reading of all the different elements that have gone into the coin.
So should we be increasing the security of the £2 coins to make it harder for them to be counterfeited?
Let us know your thoughts via Facebook, Twitter or leave us a comment below.
What is the new £5 nite worth with the number Ak18 517387
Ak48 how much are they worth £5 note
Serial number on the new 5 pound note is AA08 664445 just wondering how much thanks
worth exactly five pounds … like it says on it
For more information on what fake £2 there are out there, check out my website ;
http://TheFakePoundCoinDatabase.co.uk/twopounds.html
No, they should not alter the £2 coin. The cost to the economy of the new £1 coin, by some estimates £500 million, dramatically exceeds the capitalised cost of fake £1 entering circulation at around £4 million per year, and clearly the £2 is much harder to fake and it is very unlikely that fake £2 will progress to entering circulation at the speed of fake £1. Unless you ascribe enormous cost value to occasions when vending, ticket and parking machine transactions fail because of fake coins. Incidentally you are not correct to suggest that fake coins can always be distinguished by XRF, the Royal Mint FOI document of 2009 effectively admitted that 20% of then fake £1 could not be. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/220830/foi_poundcoins_survey_may09.pdf
Is a £2 coin really necessary these days?
the best fake £2 coin I’ve seen is one using the “Mary Rose” reverse design – this one is dated 2015, which is a bit of a giveaway, as real ones are dated 2011
Another omission is edge lettering – it just has a milled edge.
What is amazing is the very high quality finish of the obverse/reverse – highly polished, with a frosted effect to the designs.
It looks like it was made by a real mint, rather than the usual poor quality copies.
Whoever made these knows what they are doing
Bimetallic coins 2 pounds were introduced in 1997 godu not in 1998 year. You have an error.
Hi Alex, they were struck in 1997 but they were not issued into circulation until 1998. Thanks, Yasmin
In actual fact the date you give is incorrect. Actually if you look at the £2 coin collection where Technology was involved there was a 1997 coin which was different from the others- namely, the queen is seen wearing a necklace as opposed to 1998 onwards where no necklace is found
Hi Gilbert, they were struck in 1997 but they were not issued into circulation until 1998. Hope this helps. Thanks, Yasmin
For someone in the changechecker organisation you have made a blunder concerning the start date! In effect it was the £2 Technology coin in bi-metallic design but had the queen wearing a necklace.
I am not sure if I could spot a fake £2 coin but I recieved a silver 1penny in my change it was passed on for a five pence . I was delighted
Just purchased a 2015 HMS Belfast £2 circulated coin via eBay and it’s a forgery no edge description and weighs 13g and so they are out there….!
So do you not think its time to stop them being openly sold on eBay by the bag full??
If there are other ways, not yet tried to defeat these criminals we MUST try, our coinage is precious, and especially needs to be trusted at this important moment in our history
Does this mean that the only way to collect £2 coins is to buy a presentation pack from the mint or other legal distribution outlet ?
What does that mean for change checker ?
If the coins in our change are counterfeit then how do you complete your change checker album ?
we should do everything in our power to prevent fraud. it is devaluing our currency, and at this moment it time that’s the last thing we need