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[Hobo]

Day one of the 2-day course - The Chinese Counterfeit Threat - was excellent. Beth Deisher (Coin World editor) and Greg Dubay (expert on Chinese counterfeits who is in direct contact with Chinese counterfeiters) brought literally hundreds and hundreds (if not thousands) of Chinese counterfeit coins. They had the typical low-quality Trade Dollars, Seated Liberty Dollars and Morgan Dollars we are all familiar with. They had Dansco albums filled with counterfeit SLDs, Trade Dollars, Morgans and Barber Halves. (The Dansco albums were counterfeit, too.)

They had Chinese counterfeits I have heard of but had not seen before. They had nearly every date of Shield Nickels. They had 3 Cent Nickels and 3 Cent Silvers. They had Lincoln Cents - 1909-S VDB, 1914-D, 1922. Indian Head Cents. Liberty Nickels. 1916-D Mercury Dime. Lots and lots and lots of Large Cents and Half Cents - from 18th Century Flowing Hair designs to late dates - all Red or Red Brown. Gold. There was also a number of gold coins - a $1 Gold, Liberty $2 1/2, a Stella, 3 or 4 Liberty $5, a couple of $10 as well as an Amazonian (smooth edge). None of these counterfeits were very deceiving.

Errors. Tons of "errors". Lots of off-centers, broadstrikes, etc.

Fantasy pieces, reeded edge Buffalo Nickels. Lots of mules - IHC obverse w/ Lincoln Cent reverse and vice versa, Liberty Nickel obverse w/ Buffalo Nickel reverse and vice versa, Morgan Dollar obverse w/ Peace Dollar reverse and vice versa, etc.

We split into groups of 4 to weigh and measure (diameter) a bag of about 25 coins. Our bag had a fairly convincing 1796 Large Cent. The coin had farily good details but the weight was slight high. The BIG giveaway to me was the edge - it had a smooth edge and had been struck in a collar. We also had a 3CS (3 Cent Silver), 3CN (3 Cent Nickel), Shield Nickel, Seated Lib Quarter, Hudson Commem Half and a bunch of Seated Lib, Morgan and Trade Dollars. All were fakes. The Hudson Half had a medal turn and looked fake from across the room. Surprisingly, the weight and diameter were dead on but it did not appear to be 90% silver to me. I would love to do a SG (Specific Gravity) test on that piece.

Speaking of Specific Gravity, tomorrow morning they will demonstrate to us how to do a SG test. (For ANA members, look in your August issue of The Numismatist for a good article by Brian Silliman on making your own inexpensive SG test setup.)

My favorite part of this course so far is the dies. Beth and Greg brought quite a few dies that were used by the Chinese counterfeiters. All the dies were cracked and of no more use to the counterfeiters. These dies were all cut by laser. Gone are the days of making a 1-to-1 transfer die. The modern counterfeiter scans a genuine coin into a computer and lets the software control a laser that cuts his die making an exact copy of the host coin. Beth said the software the Chinese counterfeiters us is the same software used by the US Mint (although the US Mint modifies it somewhat). I noticed that the devices all had an etched look to them. Before finding out they were cut with a laser I had thought they may have been spark-erosion dies.

Most of the dies were rather crude - entire flat across the surface with faint, very low relief devices and denticles that were not sharply detailed. A couple of dies were VERY good - they had been basined and had sharply detailed devices and denticles.

Remember when you could buy a defaced die used to mint State Quarters along with your State Quarter? The Chinese bought these defaced dies, ground the faces down smooth and used them to make new dies to make more counterfeit coins!

Tomorrow we get to see the "GOOD" stuff.