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There are only an few major methods by which modern forgers can manufacture fakes, each of which has its own problems that leave telltale signs on the finished product. Clever forgers can overcome some of these problems, but perfect fakes will probably never be possible. Understanding these problems and their telltale signs, is the key to detection of fakes. However, one must be careful as most of these methods (with the exception of electrotyping) were also used by ancient forgers, and occasionally an ancient counterfeit will be confused with a modern forgery. I will describe the methods in enough detail that you should be able to understand the process, but leaving out a few important details so as to not make things easier for those that might wish to use them to make their own fakes.
The basic techniques are :
1) Casting - a process by which a mould of an original coin is created and molten metal is poured in to make the fake.
2) Electrotyping - Similar to casting in that a mould is created but different in that metal is electroplated onto the mould surfaces, rather than poured in a molten state.
3) Die striking - a die is created, either by cutting a new design, or by impressing a pre-existing coin into the surface of the die, and then the fakes are struck from the newly created die.
4) Tooling - a process by which the coin is actually carved, usually by hand, although there are ways to do it by machine. Normally this is used to change the features on an otherwise genuine coin, either to make it appear higher quality than it really was, or to make a common coin appear to be a much rarer type.
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