Featured A Lesson In Fakes

You could probably compile a pretty good image gallery of fakes going through old threads here on Cointalk. Regardless, there's a website called the Black Cabinet that has a decent database of counterfeit coins.

http://www.theblackcabinet.org/counterfeit/

 

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They won't shut down - just get a new domain name and keep selling. These are the folks with the trailer park address, remember?

 

Looking through the images is laughable.

 

My fake Morgans, these were not the coins I was bidding on, the seller not only had different photos, but also his location was marked USA. However when I received them, the package was sent in a yellow China Post envelope. Sure enough I was duped! I was 100% sure these were fakes, failed the magnet test, ping test, and worse enough a light scratch on the edge revealed brass. At least ebay got my money back, and within days the seller was no longer active!
For better or worse, I'm stuck with these coins ever since!

 

Oh I remember....

 

I have trouble seeing it that way. When someone is selling coins I know are fake, but representing them as real -- well, I'm not in the habit of buying and then ratting out the seller, but I would have zero ethical qualms about doing so.

Many years ago I almost got scammed by an eBay fake seller -- I was a much more naive buyer, and it took the folks here to make me realize I'd bought a fake. I opened a case on eBay, and they refunded my money and told me to keep the "coin".

The seller started bugging me to return it. I checked, and he was still trying to sell similar fakes -- in other words, he wanted it back so he could sell it again. I finally told him that, if he insisted, I'd be happy to turn it in to my local Secret Service office with full details of the transaction, and/or open a mail fraud case with the USPS. He stopped bugging me after that.

 

With all the fakes out there a scale is a must. I weigh every silver coin I purchase.

 

Dude, pretty critical. You can get them for like $20 on amazon.

 

Made in China no less!

 

Plenty of these things come via Alibaba...the Chinese govt is perfectly ok with sending bajillions of counterfeits onto the markets and totally ok with how Alibaba uses random Alibaba domains to host websites that claim to be elsewhere...often somewhere in the U.S. or Europe and occasionally on an island in the middle of an ocean lol!
Use a credit card or a place like ebay and you are protected and will get refunded if you get tricked...Facebook also doesn't actually care, they will host any advertisement that their systems think are honest... you'll have no recourse with Facebook whether an actual person or one of these counterfeit dealers rips you off!

 

I been in business a long time. One of the fairly recent phenomenon I have witnessed is the huge influx of websites that market my company's materials at absurd prices. What I have found is that these glitzy websites are simply shills. These are folks that created a fancy website, will take your order and ship your product from a Chinese warehouse all from the comfort of their living rooms. They aren't legitimate businesses at all..... I believe that is precisely the same thing that is happening with these bogus coins.... Sadly, I don't believe there is a thing we can do to have any impact unless the government gets tired of losing market share to these cronies. And I believe the Fed has bigger fish to fry these days.

 

Oh, no doubt. The WSJ just had an article on Shopify merchants. Exactly like you describe. Until the USPS is mandated to inspect every package coming in from China you will never stop these unless the State Department grows a pair.

 

Another point on the fake ASE, it has a 2020 date, but the rev is the pre 2008 rev design.

At which point they will route the packages through another country so they don't show as coming from China.

 

Let's not get too hasty- we don't want certain contraband not to be able to get through (i.e. my Habanos).

 

One of my pretty deceptive "Chinese" struck counterfeits. Shown shipped "origin China" via the Netherlands. Furnished the info to CBP; checked on the seller later and was told they were out of the "coin business" and into clothes...

 

Scary. At first glance the obverse would give me no pause. Only the reverse, with the "One Cent" being so high, would make me look at it closer, (however, I am not a LC expert, so maybe that is not a red flag at all on this coin).

 

Direct match for a 1795 S-76b! In fact we found the genuine source coin used to make the dies for this one. The best tell are the matching marks on the several we found and the edge.

 

I know others have said it, but man you are a god in that area of numismatics. Thank goodness you are on our side. What a weird looking large cent, I would have had a hard time believing the source coin was real given the weird placement of the words "one cent".

 

Wow.... You said it. Imagine if Jack did decide to partner with the bad guys with his vast knowledge! That’s scary just to think about.

 

Actually known for the high placement of "ONE CENT"! Images of high grade examples courtesy PCGS CoinFacts: