Great Britain Victoria Sovereign (Counterfeit) 1879 to 1905

Queen Victoria ruled Great Britain for a long, long time. She died in 1901 after an amazing reign of 64 years. A coin bearing her image dated 1905 is an obvious fake. There are other not-so-obvious fakes dated 1879. Taxfreegold had a terrific page on these fakes at this link (click here). There is another similar coin discussed at Predecimal.

So these coins are counterfeit. In the US it is illegal to own counterfeit coins, although a coin like this is an obvious fake and someone might claim it is simply a nice-looking novelty item. But these coins apparently have some gold content and therefore carry high value.

If I were you, Daniel, I'd quietly get a gold weight and purity estimate (perhaps from a jeweler) and then stash your treasure away as a conversation piece.

Our thanks, too, to Baldwin's Auctions in London whose coin picture we butchered to get our point across. The Baldwin coin is actually an 1880 extremely rare milled edge proof sovereign which sold at auction for 10000 GBP, about $15000 US dollars. Nice!
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