Since the initial book on the Forgotten Coins of the North American Colonies was published in 1992 by Krause Publications there has been much advancement of these contemporary counterfeits by American & Foreign collectors. This book is not so much a research exercise into new areas of contemporary counterfeit collecting but a tribute to an individual who started many people in collecting these coins when at this time in 1992 few if any collectors thought of collecting contemporary counterfeits. Today most collectors of any advanced collecting interest have associated contemporary counterfeits in their collection. Today if I do meet a collector with no contemporary counterfeits in their collection I do question how advanced this collector is or putting it more plainly his "breadth" of knowledge in his field of collecting. Contemporary Counterfeits sort of rounds out the collector in his collecting pursuits and distinguishes him from just being as Bill always indicated a simple minded accumulator. The purpose of this book will be to discuss certain areas that the author is familiar with and to bring this information to its current level of understanding.A good definition is a definition we used for the Counterfeit Eight Reales book released in September 2014 by Amazon Books. A Contemporary Counterfeit is defined as a spurious coin made to circulate alongside originals in day to day commerce at the same value, regardless of face value or design type. See the Definitions section within this book.Specifically, the author will discuss the Canadian Blacksmiths, Spanish/American counterfeits (i.e., Kleeberg Two Reales and the Gurney/Nichols/Lorenzo Eight Reales), English and Irish Halfpence/Farthing contemporary counterfeits principally sold in the Stacks 2008 Michael Ringo Collection and other brief treatments of counterfeits mentioned in the Forgotten Book. The reason I use the word brief as it may take two or three volumes to address all these advancements. Most of the advancements are seen for the U.S. Colonial issues in the American Numismatic Society's Colonial Newsletter in which the serious student is urged to join the ANS and subscribe to the Colonial Newsletter.
About the Author: A collector of 50 years in various coinages including U.S. Colonials, Spanish-American, Ancient Coinage primarily Greek coinage and U.S. Paper Money errors. Member of the ANS, NLG, MNA, ANA and C4 organizations. Past President of the Northern Valley Coin Club for two consecutive terms. Most of my research articles are documented accordingly in the Eric P. Newman portal.