Got this email back from PCGS. While they probably can't tell me much for security reasons, I do hope they take action to the people in china manufacturing fake pcgs slabs.
Not a lot they would be able to do if the manufacturing of the counterfeit slabs is done in China. However, if those slabs make it to the U.S., there may be something they could do.
I have often wondered where PCGS and NGC get their raw slabs from and if the whole problem could be traced back to a single source? Seems like a lot of company's want to go cheap and end up going bust doing business with the wrong partners.
Just amazing! It seems the honorable Chinese know no bounds when it comes to counterfeiting. I went out to alibaba.com and joined so I could take a deeper look. They are propagating their fakes to sell on eBay for $1500.00 more than the $263.00 or whatever purchase price. This is for a counterfeit St. Gaudens in a counterfeit PCGS Slab. Here is a direct copy and paste: ********************************** 1930 S silver Dollar United States PCGS $20 Coins coin US Christmas gifts Crafts Gold Gilt History: Feedback(1) 1 Order (1 piece ) Price: US $263.16 / piece Bulk Price: US $252.63 / piece Min. Order: 3 pieces View More welcome to my store (wggwfn) view all the hot items Explain above all, this is a medal for false, because really more than value this price, this is similarity 90% silver COINS, I still have a lot of other Morgan series, trade yuan series sold, also have silver 1794 1795 1796 U.S. silver, and various other countries of silver, need to seek advice from me, a lot of EBAY sellers are here with me, and then buy goods on EBAY above sell, thank you. Various PCGS box silver COINS, could start to contact with me. EBAY sellers long-term supplier of coins, all silver, all kinds of PCGS coin boxes, each one can be sold in EBAY at least $ 1,500 above the above need, please contact me.EBAY sellers long-term supplier of coins, all silver, all kinds of PCGS coin boxes, each one can be sold in EBAY at least $ 1,500 above the above need, please contact me. Do not know what this Christmas to send gifts? Gave elders, relatives, friends, the best gift is to send a PCGS coin boxes, certainly the most popular You can also EBAY above the sale, each costing at least be able to bid more than $ 1,200, you need, please contact me. Promised by Seller My dear friend, Hello,Thank you for visiting my store ***************************************************************************** IMO, Alibaba.com should be shut down.... Yeah, but that is just me...! CRAP! I hate this. Thanks for posting OP!
I find it hard to believe that PCGS was not aware of alibaba.com and other similar sites that offer up coins in phoney slabs. This is nothing new, these guys have been around for a long time. I think the TPG's want to keep this stuff under wraps, and probably send out "canned" responses like the one above. They realize they can do little to prevent the manufacture and distribution of these slabs; they also realize that without proper countermeasures, confidence in slabbed coins will erode.
Every TPG nows about it, even about.com did a good article on this. On that topic there was a keynote done by coin expert couple years ago (think the video is on youtube now) where the expert noted the American middleman are ordering custom made slabbed coins from china on demand. The middle man puts a classified ad saying he has coins, when buyer contacts him and says he wants a particular coin with certain grade. Scam artist will then reply saying he has it in storage or knows dealer who has it and he can get that in 2 weeks and that how the scam goes.. http://coins.about.com/od/worldcoins/ig/Chinese-Counterfeiting-Ring/ Added: also remove the mention of ali**** from your topic or posts, only adds to more peeps going there to order fake coins to dupe others...
All the PCGS slabs I find on that site link back to Superior Galleries here in the US as being the seller.
Are you saying that the copies were of coins sold at Superior or that the coins you saw were authentic slabbed coins?
The only listings I can find on the site do not show the slabs and they all give Superior Galleries as the dealer selling them. They do show ANACS slabs being sold by them as well. The photos of the coins and the ANACS slabs are too small to say anything definitive about them but I suspect they are real. I can't find the supplier pictured above by Bisquitlips on the website. I do find them, and their counterfeit coins and slabs listed on a different website with a similar name.
It looks like they have their hands full just trying to get coins graded, the solution seems to be if you want a coin graded, take advantage of the show special or run it through express, which I remember being two or so days once upon a time: Estimated Submission Turnaround Time ServiceU.S. CoinsWorld Coins[TR="class: light-blue-bg"] [TD="class: left-align"]Express target: 5 business days[/TD] 7 business days 7 business days [/TR] [TR="class: blue-bg"] [TD="class: left-align"]Regular target: 15 business days[/TD] 22 business days 15 business days [/TR] [TR="class: light-blue-bg"] [TD="class: left-align"]Economy target: 20 business days[/TD] 26 business days 21 business days [/TR] [TR="class: blue-bg"] [TD="class: left-align"]Modern target: 10 business days[/TD] 23 business days 25 business days [/TR]
