High tech gadget spots counterfeit coins

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2904560

"stonej" wrote in message
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http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2904560

High-tech gadget spots counterfeit coins
Chemistry: Experts can use a laser to identify atomic components of metals,
showing their mining district of origin

By Sandra Chereb
The Associated Press


RENO, Nev. - Gold and silver swindlers have been plying their cagey cons
since the days of the Wild West, when they passed off slugs and fool's gold
as something far more precious.
But more sophistication - combined with the global allure of the Internet
that allows anyone, anywhere to buy and sell coins and ingots with the click
of a mouse - has allowed scams to proliferate and forced the fight against
fraud to use advancing technology.
Experts now are able to identify atomic components that can trace metals
to their mining district of origin, providing a sort of DNA fingerprint.
Combined with an unprecedented historical record recovered from the ocean
floor, the process is generating excitement among numismatists - coin
collectors - and hobbyists, who say it could help expose disguised worthless
trinkets and validate the authenticity of others.
''There have been some exceptionally rare pieces questioned for a long
time,'' said Beth Deisher, editor of Coin World magazine. ''If there is a
process by which we can determine without question the origin of the gold,
it could be a definite statement as to whether the pieces are real or
fake.''
For Fred Holabird and David Fitch of Reno, the endeavor is a melding of
decades in the mining industry, a love of history and a determination to
bore out truth.
''It's sort of like detective work,'' said Fitch, who worked in mining
exploration for more than 30 years and now consults. ''In forming an ore
deposit, nature carries its own fingerprint of an area. No two sites are the
same.''
''It's treasure hunting at its best,'' Holabird added.
Holabird, who worked in gold production, Fitch and Bob Evans, a geologist
and coin curator in Hopewell, Ohio, first presented their research in 2003
and received an award last year from the American Numismatic Association.
They presented an update to the American Academy of Forensic Science last
year.
Numismatists have been following developments with interest, and agree
the new technique could help stamp out fraud.
''It would constitute a major breakthrough,'' Deisher said. ''Over the
centuries, we've learned that counterfeiters adapt to the situation. They
are especially adept at using new technologies.''
Emerging science, she added, ''should slow them down significantly in our
marketplace.''
Ironically, a shipwreck nearly 150 years ago has bolstered the modern
mission.
The SS Central America was a side-wheel steamer that sank during an
Atlantic hurricane in 1857. Many of its passengers had been miners returning
from California, and the ship was laden with gold - hundreds of ingots and
thousands of coins.
''This stuff is worth millions and millions of dollars,'' Fitch said.
One bar, dubbed ''Eureka,'' sold for $8 million.
Evans was the lead scientist for the 1989 salvage operation by the
Columbus-America Discovery Group, and cataloged the rewards.
Holabird - retained as an expert when insurers and the salvage company went
to court to divvy up the treasure - inventoried the cache.
Besides fascination and awe, the riches raised from the sea floor
provided a preserved record of the refining and marking techniques used by
different assayers of the era.
''That gave the whole subject a real baseline,'' Evans said. ''Now we had
532 absolutely genuine ingots - no questions of their historical
genuineness.''
Holabird, also a dealer of artifacts, said the treasures from the
shipwreck magnified the problem. Some were high profile, like two ingots at
the Smithsonian Institution from the collection of the late pharmaceutical
executive Josiah Lilly.
''Mr. Lilly was an enthusiast,'' Evans explained. ''He probably believed
they were real and there was no evidence to the contrary.
''The suspicions were heightened when the SS Central America came out and
the real ingots made by a certain manufacturer didn't look at all like the
ingots in the Lilly Collection,'' he said.
Holabird said it became apparent people were being duped.
''You realize they're selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars and
some of them might not be real,'' he said. ''How do you tell the difference?
''It became more important to come up with a method to separate real from
fake using science,'' Holabird said.
They turned to John Watling, an Australian chemist and pioneer of
forensic fingerprinting of gold and diamonds.
Watling uses a machine called a Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma
Mass Spectrometer to break samples down to the atomic level.
Using a tiny laser beam, a microscopic incision barely visible to the
naked eye is drilled in a sample, and the resulting vapor is analyzed. The
painstaking process allows scientists to detect trace and subtrace elements
in the range of parts per billion.
Holabird and his team then use the data retrieved by Watling to develop a
three-dimensional color display, or visual fingerprint, of the sample,
making it easier to interpret.
''The differences show up very, very quickly,'' Holabird said.

Looks fairly destructive to me ... "Using a tiny laser beam, a microscopic
incision barely visible to the naked eye is drilled in a sample ..."

"stonej" wrote in message
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Is it microscopic or is it barely visible to the naked eye? By definition,
something microscopic is too small to be seen by the naked eye.

"Dr. Richard L. Hall" wrote in message
...
Looks fairly destructive to me ... "Using a tiny laser beam, a microscopic
incision barely visible to the naked eye is drilled in a sample ..."

"stonej" wrote in message
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http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2904560

Doesn't seem as useful as known die and punch attributes. Bullion was
carted from a fairly large
area to the closest refinery. What about coins struck from melted down
older coins from various
mints?

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