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Fakes, Fantasy & Restrikes

    Defined:

Fake tokens are counterfeits, i.e. modern made reproductions of actual old tokens, made to deceive collectors, and part them from their money.  

Fantasy tokens are modern made tokens, medals, etc. that are not copies of old tokens.  They are merely concoctions from some person's imagination, many times seen with names of authentic persons or places on the token, which give them an air of plausibility.  No such token ever existed in the era they were supposed used/made.

Restrike tokens are copies of authentic tokens, made at a later date using one or two of the original dies to make the restrikes.

Today, ebay is plagued with fakes and fantasy tokens.  Many of the sellers of these spurious tokens use various methods of hawking their trash.  One of the most popular of the methods is to use the "bidder's identity protected" method, therefore no one can 1. warn any prospective buyer that the items being sold are fakes and 2. discern if the bidders are shills.  Another popular phrase in most of these fakes is "Due to purchase and lack of information this item will be listed as modern."

Many of the current crop of fantasy tokens, medals, slave tags, and such on ebay, seem to come from the St. Louis to Nashville area, although I have seen them offered from across the country.  One dead give away that the item is fake is that either the entire item is incuse and obviously hand engraved (by someone with a dremel tool type machine and a huge stack of brass and zinc blanks), or 90% incuse and hand engraved.  Most all of the fantasy items from the Nashville area fall into this category.

I

update:  17 jan 2005