Counterfeit - 1 Piastre

The legitimate 1908 piastre was struck in .900 silver at the Hanoi mint, which had opened in 1899 specifically to supply Indochina with coinage independent of metropolitan French production. This piece is magnetic, placing its core composition almost certainly in the iron or steel family — no silver content whatsoever. Contemporary counterfeiting of the piastre was endemic throughout the region, driven by the coin's heavy use as a trade currency well beyond French administrative borders into southern China and Siam, making a convincing fake profitable across multiple monetary jurisdictions.