Got a visit from the secret service today.

I spent a good 20 minutes or so talking with a couple of secret service agents today. They had a handful of freshly made Chinese counterfeits they were investigating. The secret service usually handles counterfeit paper money but I was informed that they have been dealing with a LOT more cases of numismatic coinage counterfeiting lately. We spoke for a few minutes about Chinese counterfeits and how they are getting here and I was able to teach them a few things about identifying these counterfeits from original coins. Overall it was really neat to talk with them about this. They seemed interested and also were kind of shocked to hear about how they have been being distributed.

 

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You mean to tell me you ratted out ebay for laundering counterfeit coins in the US? WAY TO GO MATT!!!

 

Holy crap i was thinking the same thing

 

OMG! You mean we might actually have a chance of doing something? Really? May I assume that you mentioned eBay?

 

I'll have my fingers crossed.
Nice work Matt!!

 

I would wager that those 20 minutes you spent with those agents dramatically increased their knowledge of those rats that are trying to destroy the hobby in order to make a few dollars.

 

Nice work dutchman. Book'em danno!

 

That's pretty cool!

Care to do a segment on the Radio show about the SS meeting/experience... :smile

 

Did you check their badges? Just kidding. :smile I am sure you gave them the info they needed. TC

 

Badges? They don't need no stinkin' badges....

 

How did they obtain them, search and seizure...or did you not ask? So when ebay closes tomorrow we will now why, right? lol

 

So what rock have these guys been living under? Scary indeed. They had a chance to nab the imbeciles that drove the two planes into the world trade center.....oh boy, these guys are really at the top of their game. Feelin' safe tonite....gun on the lampstand.......

 

I have been a busy boy this week. I have spoken with a deputy United States attorney (who happens to be a customer of mine), filed a complaint against EBay with the Indiana state attorney generals office (after speaking with a deputy DA in the shop for about an hour), and spoke with these agents today.

 

When i first saw the title i thought it was about the fake 1964 Peace dollars that people have been talking about.

 

And the suit against eBay was for....?

 

Not a suit, Just a formal complaint. It will be up to the attorney general to file suit. Basically my complaint was in reference to the illegal importation of unmarked reproductions via sites like EBay. The complaint states that they are marketed legally and shown with the words copy or replica... but when ordered they are arriving unmarked. This allows unscrupulous people to market these coins as originals. It also asked what I'd like done to remedy the problem to which I responded Mandating that replica coins sold in Indiana via EBay must be marked, but the marking must be integral to the die and not hand stamped. I know it's a long shot... but I'm working any angle I can get... a paper trail is what I'm after... documentation, whether there is action or not is the key.

 

Oh... so now we're talking about coin doctors, eh ? lol

 

I would love to help you, but there is little I can do in Indiana except say the coins I received were unmarked. The other thing I have seen is the just about every one of these sellers are using stock photos for one side of their coin. I have had some success getting their coins removed because of that. That may have been the straw that broke the camel's back for Jing and company

I would think that (with appropriate cooperation) you could sue them personally for lost business because of the people bringing in the counterfeit coins. I guess the problem would be that it would be very hard to show where they all come from

 

'bout time the FBI did something about counterfits. Kudos to the thread starter here

 

If you suddenly disappear from this forum, we know why.