Inside the Chinese counterfiting ring

If I knew a way of getting a petion going from here at Coin Talk I would say let's do it. First it would take someone more computer savy than me. Second if CT members did it by the state they are registered voters I don't think it would have the impact unless we did maybe one big one and sent copies to representatives from each state. To get attention it takes a lot of signatures to have an impact.

Second I don't think ebay is really the problem here. I doubt even the most novice or newbie is ordering a coin from China. It is the individual here ordering them by the pound if they leave off the word replica that is the problem. Those people need to be tracked and prosecuted if they knowingly sell couterfeit coins.

I personally think the coins are mostly originating in China, but to sold to Americans by Americans.

 

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How valid is it for the novice? Extremely important. And if a novice is going to spend tens, hundreds or even thousands of dollars on things he has no knowledge about he deserves what he gets and maybe he does need to have a different hobby. The novice should stay with low value items until he becomes more experienced and then he can move on to better and more expnsive material. The "investor" type who wants to come in and spends thousands of dollars on something just because they are pretty and someone told them they are valuable, but don't know why they should be valuable or if they are even real, deserve what they get.

The novices need to be taught not coddled and protected from the big bad world. That doesn't mean I don't think that steps shouldn't be taken to stop the counterfeiters, but I also realize that you will never stop them completely. You will be lucky to slow them down. For that reason and that reason alone knowledge will continue to be more important than ever.

Now on that point I most definitely agree, and it is the domestic theives that the force of law needs to come down on HARD. You have to make it so it is not worth their while to try for that rip. Make the fine equal to the market value of the genuine coin for every fake found in their possession or knowingly sold. (That keeps them from selling them and having them drop shipped from the counterfeiter in China. They can still be fined for selling fake they never had in their possession. Only problem might be proving that they knew they were fake.

 

:bigeyes:thought you might find this interesting:smile http://home.comcast.net/~reidgold/draped_busts/chinese.html http://gnpov.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/china-and-their-counterfeits-of-us-coins/

 

Is this any worse than what Madoff did?

 

Yes.

The fall out from that scandal is known and over with. It's history. Most of these fakes will be floating around forever, ripping people off.

 

Neither one is good and a lot of lives were messed up forever, but I guess my point is we all have to really watch out for the "to good to be true" deals. I think this forum is just great for a knuckle head like me who wants to re kindle a hobby from when I was a kid 300 years ago.

 

I agree. Before I found this forum, I had no idea to what extent counterfeiting has gone to. I never would have realized you have to be skeptical of any type of AU/MS, loose coin you see. I think a lot of people still don't realize it. Everyone thinks they don't need to worry because it's 'just a common coin'. 'It would never be worth somebody's time to try to fake it'. Well, think again. There's a replica for everything now.

 

Our best weapon against the counterfeiters is knowledge!! Until some of our law enforcement and government officials get together and do something about this we have nothing else to arm ourselves with but education.

Talking about this issue is good for educating us and this issue needs to be passed around even if a few ppl are tired of looking at the same old pics over and over again. Good luck in staying away from the sellers of these fakes and if you see someone selling fakes, report their sleazy duffs as we won't get rid of this problem unless we get rid of the problem people!!! Nothing changes, if nothing changes!!

 

Also having a local dealer you can trust is good. I am now trying an online dealer for the first time for about a $200 purchase. I think he is trustworthy, but will soon find out. I really want a combination of both. I suppose in a way the internet has hurt the coin dealers. My industry has also been greatly effected by the internet, so I guess we all have that to deal with.