It is one of those moments, for sure.
I don't have a machine and have considered it. but most of my stuff I buy directly from bullion dealers. I trust, but Nothing is 100%.
Just looking at this coin I can tell it's not right, the stars are almost proof like and incused also the holder, the label and the hologram just don't look right. but if you didn't know this you could be easily fooled as it's in an NGC holder or what you think is one. does it stack with the other ngc is another way. but fakes are getting better and of the slabs to. so if you are buying expensive items from say ebay or a coins show. A Good investement.
I didn't stack it with other ngc holders. I honestly didn't give it a second look because it was slabbed by ngc. Obviously that was my mistake right there. Valuable lesson learned.
albeit an expensive one. often the case and that's why it so dangerous just to trust it as it's in a holder that it's legit. Is what they prey on I guess lack of knowledge. You won't be caught again though. but I even hear the machine can be fooled or give wrong results sometimes. Think with tungsten and Ultrasound only real way to know. guess it may have to do with how deep it scans and different machines will have a different scan depth.
Yes agreed. It could be thrown off by some of the newer metals used. The bullion wand does help reading deeper. The best is the xray gun. I looked into that as well. Can cost 10s of thousands for a nice one. .
I guess as well that's one reason I like raw coins. as well as the edge they give me in the EU. You know the weight & dimensions of the coin so you can check it but you cannot in a holder. neither can you do a specific gravity test. does interest me a lot. The science behind it. Most fakes would come foul of one test but pass another or even all other tests like the magnet. as we deffo cannot afford to spend thousands or hundreds of thousands on Spectrometry unless you buying big huge bars of gold. No one test IMO is fail-safe and that's what makes coins in holder dangerous if you buy from unknown sources. Unless you have a machine. but most machines have limitations or a certain tollerance that the results will be within. Fakers could get a machine and make a composite that could fool the machine and that's scary and not beyond the realms of possibilities.
I agree with all points. It is incredible the level counterfeiting has got to! You can only do your best to learn and prepare..