I just received an email with a link to a very interesting article on where so many counterfeit coins are coming from. I thought I'd pass it on. JonySky http://coins.about.com/od/worldcoins/ig/Chinese-Counterfeiting-Ring/
Makes you wonder just how many of these counterfeits have passed for genuine and have even been slabbed by a TPG. Some of these high quality counterfeits cannot be easily distinguished from genuine.
This ia repeated post of mine Take a look at this 1909-S VDB done by a counterfeitors And some of his Morgan counterfeits http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140213776241 Some Slab co's back up that they are Authentic and suppose to buy it back from you if not
Fields on that one don't look quite right (besides the obvious 'replica' stamped in it). With the right kind of artificial wear and toning I bet it would be passable as authentic. Looks like the seller has quite a business there.
You can tell where the metal was deformed by the stamp, it is not just photoshopped in. By law, all replica coins must be permanently marked in some way as a copy or replica to be sold legally in the US. Read up on the Hobby Protection Act of 1973
Why do you apparently believe that a Chinese counterfeiter cares about a US law, particularly a US law which is so poorly enforced? Even if it were enforced and the US government actually cared enough to pursue the matter, what would it do? Arrest Chinese citizens on sovereign Chinese soil for breaking an American law? Compare images of other allegedly "replica" counterstamped coins. The "deformation" seems common to them all. I think it is not really there, just photoshopped in for the purpose of selling on ebay.
By the way, welcome to the forums grivna! The stamps look similar, but not identical. The seller has nothing to gain by adding in the replica by using photoshop. They do care about the law because if they were selling these coins without the stamp, the seller would be banned from ebay for selling counterfeits. It is not impossible to be extradited and tried here for creating and distributing counterfeits. Remember that the authentic versions of these coins are still considered legal tender.
Thank you for the welcome.:smile I do not collect US coins, but I can assure you that in the area I do collect, there are many fakes offered on ebay and I see very little evidence that ebay will do anything about it. From where I sit, ebay seems far more interested in collecting fees than in removing auctions of fakes, let alone banning such sellers from its site.
Ebay itself may not be too concerned about the fakes, but if the auctions get enough negative attention from their members, they will remove the content. They also have a policy against it.
It may well be stamped...on THAT coin.Ive bought a couple dozen and only two (2) were actually stamped.
