| Minh Duc Thong Bao
The coin is confirmed as a fake by examining the workmanship of the
top character and the artificial patina. The top microscopic view shows
a microscopic view of the left side of the top character. A piece of the
material was cut away with a sharp knife reveling that the character was
molded from lead. A thick layer of copper has been added on top of the
lead, then the whole structure has been coated with fake patina. The copper
layer was added presumably to help the patina adhere to the character.
This method of building a fake character is unusually sophisticated and
the use of plastic compounds is more common. The microscopic view on the
bottom microscopic shows the top part of the 'Thong' character where the
patina looks more artificial, note the spotty appearance.
Allan Barker
If you have any questions, would like to express an opinion, or would
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The figure on
the right is a comparison of a fake of Minh Duc Thong Bao in the center,
and on the left is a rubbing of a genuine piece, and on the right is a
rubbing of Hong Duc. Note the style of the Bao on each. This excellent
fake was made by replacing the top character 'Hong' of a Hong Duc Thong
Bao with the character 'Minh'. It's most easily recognized as a fake because
the calligraphy is not correct. The workmanship and artificial patina are
excellent, making it difficult to recognize based on look and feel alone.
Manipulated fakes are sometimes very deceptive because much of the coin
is genuine giving it a good look and feel.
The
figure below consists of microscopic views of ( top) the left part of the
character 'Minh', and (bottom) the top part of the character 'Thong'. It's
a common practice to produce a fake by replacing characters when less expensive
coins exist with similar style. Hong Duc is a natural starting point for
making Minh Duc because they differ only in one character, the calligraphy
is similar, and it's cheap. The weakness of this approach is that the calligraphy
does not exactly match rubbings of either variety of Minh Duc listed in
Gosen. Comparing the fake with the rubbings shows clearly that the
style and calligraphy, particularly the 'Bao', are that of Hong Duc.