Photo of fake slabbed coins.

That would be the "J-Man" and his "Big Tree Coin Factory". Once one of eBay's most prolific sellers of umarked replicas, he has spent years perfecting his product. Now sold mainly through his website along with other "distributors", it has been estimated by some sources that as many as 10,000 fake coins are entering the U.S. weekly. Along with the typical "base metal" products are high end replicas that are die struck using planchets of the correct correct weight, size and metal content.

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It's a shame. It seems that the only way to avoid this is buying from a compay like Heritage. Ebay have gotten worst with these China company selling fakes.

 

I don't understand why the TPG's don't simply adapt rfid technology into there slabs it would be dirt cheap to do so and would add an additional level of safety.

 

And if I can record what the rfid chip from a genuine slab emits and then program the chip I put in my fake slab to emit the same thing, you are right back where we are now. The rfid doesn't help. It DOES mean that I have to have the genuine slab in my hands at some time though so I can use a reader on it. I can't just fake it from a picture.

 

then how come there are so many fake pandas?

 

I did send an email to PCGS and they said they are going to turn my information into the fraud department. Hopefully that will do some good.

 

It would take awhile to break the encryption used on each tag and if using a different unique encryption on each tag the counterfeiters would need to obtain the actual coin first or hack the database where the data is stored to be able to copy the coins unique tag correctly. By no means a perfect solution but much better than what is done now.

 

Yeah, until I get good at this I think I'll just get my expensive coins from the US or Canadian Mints.

 

Lessons are pretty simple: don't buy expensive coins without looking at them. If you can't tell by looking at them, only buy from national level dealers.

 

If the TPGs put chips in the slabs, collectors would need some kind of device to read the chip for verification.

 

Two problems associated with RFID technology are hacking and tracking. It is relatively easy to intercept the RFID signal and this would allow someone to either hack the signal to clone the security technology into another slab or they might even use the signal to track the whereabouts of the slab or the owner of the coins. These are valid concerns that should be addressed before RFID technology can or should be employed within a slab.

 

Slabbed premiums collapsing, circa 2014?
Yikes.

 

"Premiums" Heck, if I am worried about fake slabs, I am not paying a premium for a coin I cannot visually check out personally, so instead of a premium it would be a major discount if a coin is in a slab and I cannot inspect the coin closer.

 

EXACTLY. This attacks the heart of the TPGs business model - their very raison d'être in fact.

Hope PCGS and their competition collectively deal with this before the coin market goes the way of the music biz (remember how compact disc sales were wiped out by p2p file-sharing, while industry execs were snoozin'?)

This might be a topic for the Q&A at FUN, for those attending these seminars
Friday, January 11 : 11:30 AM “Telltale Signs of Altered and Counterfeit Coins,” by Skip Fazzari.

Saturday, January 12: 10:00 AM “Crack Out All Your Slab Coins!” by Andrew Kimmel

 

I only buy from sellers in the good ol' U.S. of A.!

And I try dearly to do the same with everything I buy! Not easy these days!

 

Don't you know, china makes pcgs their raw slabs ! That's how their slabs are getting faked !!!

 

Sheesh you guys must be magnets for fakes. I just got a premium 1965 quarter off of ebay and it came in the official holder. It is glued on there good thats how i know its real.

 

Nice score, did they have anymore!?!

 

I think maybe IKEA bought out PCGS, or at least they are subing out their work to Shanghi! (Hey look, it's from "The IKEA Collection!" LMAO)

I'll use the free "GRADED" quarter program as further evidence!