Gold bugs, beware – fake Mex gold peso coins come to Moscow!

We are a gold and silver coin dealer based in Moscow, Russia. We have just had a customer bring us a fake gold Mexican 50 peso coin for sale. He told us that “people he knows brought it for him from the States”. He paid about $700 for this coin. That alone should have activated his alarm, because just the value of gold in the coin exceeds $2,000. We know that there are gold peso shaped gift medallions on the market, but they are generally smaller in size than what we have seen.

We have taken pictures and decided to briefly walk you through main differences between the fake and genuine items. It may be of interest to retail bullion investors all over the world since gold pesos are one of the most popular mass-produced investment coins ever.

Below is the brief description of 50 peso gold coins:

The Mexican 50 Pesos gold coin, which contains 37.5 grams (1.2057 oz) of gold in an alloy of 90% gold and 10% copper (21.6 karat). For durability, most gold coins in the Western World have been alloyed with copper. First issued in 1921 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Mexico’s independence from Spain, the Mexican 50 Peso gold coin is also known as the Centenario.

The obverse (front) of two coins:

Left – fake coin, right – genuine.

The female figure of the Winged victory on the fake is less defined, smudged. The fake coin’s coloring is brighter with a metallic hue.

The reverse (back) of two coins:

Left – fake coin, right – genuine.

The picture of the Mexican Coat of Arms, which is an eagle perched on a cactus with a serpent in its beak, on the fake is less defined, smudged

The writing on the edge of the coin – INDEPENDENCIA Y LIBERTAD – on the genuine coin is clear and pronounced whereas on the fake it has less depth and worn out.

The diameter and thickness of the fake and genuine coins were exactly the same – we stock several genuine gold pesos so we could compare them.

But the greatest difference between the two was weight. The real coin weighed 41,73 g.

The fake - 23,37 g.

This is how we could tell the two apart by weighing and visual inspection.