There are 4 main ways of checking whether a pound coin is fake.
(Personally, I find the edge motto the quickest and easiest to check, plus it weeds out a good 85% of fakes)
Does the Date and Motto match the Design.
Printable table courtesy of the Royal Mint - tinyurl.com/checkyourcoins(With the Tails side facing you, flip the coin horizontally on its axis)
Official figures are:
Diameter: 22.5mm, Weight: 9.5g & Thickness: 3.15mm
(Personally I only check the weight)
Last but not least,
USE COMMON SENSE
Sometimes a coin matches all the above, but is still possibly fake.
(It could look too shiny, have uneven wear etc)
Ones that pass the above 4 Steps, but don't FEEL right,
generally go in my Possible Fakes section.
PS All Coins in the images above are fake !
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