I just read in "Coins" magazine that approximately 90% of the U.S. gold coins submitted to professional grading services are returned to the submitters as being counterfeits. That is pretty frightening. I've been thinking about bidding on a $20 St. Gaudens coin on eBay, but I think it would be stupid to bid on an uncertified coin. Opinions?
Absolutely!! I would never bid on a raw coin (especially raw gold or key date coins) on eBay unless it was the real deal...that means graded and authenticated by the top TPG's. Unless you know the seller or have access to his first born, NEVER buy these coins, especially from overseas sellers. NEVER EVER bid/purchase these coins unless you can satisfy yourself that you have some course of action to recover your money in the event your coin is fake. 99.9% plus positve feedback is a start to look at first...but even with that, the seller could always say that "grading is an opinion and my pictures were clear enough." Be careful...
counterfeited slabs especially from oversea dealers would be another concern of mine. I think finding the right dealer is as importent as finding the coin.
90% ?? That I find hard to believe. In fact I don't believe it at all. Who was the author of this article ? I have no problem at all believing that they get a lot of counterfeits - but not that many. No doubt the price of gold has everybody and his brother submitting coins for authentication and the numbers of submittals has probably skyrocketed. And that alone would account in the number of counterfeits that the TPGs see increasing. But 90% ?? By the way, I do agree with Midas. Don't pass out on me now Midas If you don't really know your coins, never buy a gold coin raw.
I agree with being really carefull nowadays about buying coins that are not slabbed as real. Unfortunately even the slabbed coins are being counterfeited lately from overseas. As this coin hobby increases more and more the counterfeiters also increase. I would now be afraid to buy any coin for more than $1 unless authenticated. Just bought a 1913 Liverty Head Nickel at a coin show for $2. Super bad fake obviously. It was a 1903 with the 0 smashed in to look like a 1 and then filled in with lead and so stated on the 2x2.
In my experience most circ U.S. gold coins are genuine. I'm talking about $2.50, $5, $10 & $20 coins. Yes there's a few bad ones out there and virtually all of them that I've seen are contemporary gold counterfeits, created 100 years ago or more & intended to fool the merchant into accepting it as money, rather than being used to trick modern day collectors. 100% of these coins that I've seen were good gold...just not struck at the mint. The non-gold replicas I've seen I consider as just that...replicas, not true counterfeits. Most of these are marked "copy" or some such. Then there is the $3 piece. I've seen lots of fakes of those, and $1 gold coins too. The only good example of modern day counterfeits that I can think of was the infamous bay area counterfeiter a few decades ago that had everyone fooled for a long time, though now I believe his/her material is pretty readily detected by the professional or advanced collector. Generally speaking, if the color is right, and it weighs right and looks right...it's usually right. But with that said if you don't look at a LOT of coins on a regular basis, it's best to buy certified or from a trusted source. Hope this helps, Nick Boyd tradernick
I don't believe it at all either. That's an impossible figure. I'd estimate that both NGC & PCGS have graded around a million gold coins each. I'm talking circulation strike coins, not modern commems. That'd mean that 10 million gold coins were submitted to each servcice and they bagged 9 million of them. Considering PCGS has only graded around 10 million coins and NGC 12 million coins, the 90% figure could not be close to accurate. From my experience, a vast majority of the gold coins on the market are real. There is just no reason to counterfeit them as they are worth bullion value + a few percent.
Double check that article, I think you missed something. Back in 1972 when ANACS began something like 60% of the submitted gold coins were fake, and 90% of some coins like type II gold dollars and three dollar gold pieces were fake. But ANACS went a LONG way toward eliminatiing the fake coins in the hobby. By the time PCGS and NGC were founded the incidences of fakes being submitted was way dawn. Fourteen years of identiffication of fakes had helped many dealers to learn how to identify them and most were removed by that time. Since them all three services have continued to eliminate what was left of the fakes. I think the overall incedence of fake gold today is probably less than 10% with the type II gold and the Three Dollar still leading the way with the most fakes submitted. That would mean that most other gold encountered is probably real. (Probably less than 5% fake)
Thanks I appreciate all the input - it's been very educational. I haven't been able to find the column again; maybe I misread it. Thanks.
