Just got the elusive 1916 Barber Half....

I fail to see any comparison since the Moonlight Mint is not making Half Dollar Barber coins into 10 or 20 dollar Barber coins.

 

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Says who?

 

I set up and operated one for awhile . Amazing machines .

 

At least they are "real coins" made by the US mint not in a basement somewhere...

 

Daniel Carr's coins are not made in a basement. They are engraved by a professional, who has done design work for the US MINT, and are made on a press that once was in actual use at the Denver Mint. Therein lies the difference between his tokens and a "cheap Chinese copy." Nor is there any attempt to deceive--the coins are advertised as fantasy overstrikes, and not genuine US coinage.

 

If I ever need legal counsel, I could hire one of the many fine lawyers in this thread.

(Says the girl behind bars)

 

And somebody might get cheated because your coins DON'T have the word "copy" on them.

 

Again, this is an open invitation for counterfeiters to start flooding the market. You might end up seeing high quality fantasy coins in the very near future.

This is an example from China.



Overstruck over this



This is supposedly a coin originated from Kansu Province. If this is genuine, this is easily a 5000 dollar coin. While it's not feasible to do such overstrikes these days, this was done when many Chinese coins were sold close to scrap value. This was done perhaps more than 5 - 10 years ago. While I haven't seen any other examples since then - this is alarming. I had a couple of emails from potential buyers who were willing to spend more than 1000 dollars to buy this despite the warning. I had to refuse them.

I wouldn't have a qualm if this had a mark to identify that this is indeed a fantasy 'coin'. But no, this instead relies on collectors to know their stuff inside out. Would an average joe presume that the 'coin' is genuine? Yes. Suppose an amateur collector tries to find this in his catalog. Not documented - surely it has to be an undocumented discovery and it had to be rare and worth a fair bit. Of course, to long time collectors, this may be hilarious initially.

Based on earlier arguments, this is something I would expect such from an entrepreneur counterfeiter or synthetic drug producers. Despite how you want to start a lecture that it is 'legal', laws are not designed to cover every aspect of potential crimes. In fact, new laws are usually formed only after a major problem occur in society. At this point of time, all I can say is that such 'fantasy' is not causing a problem yet.

Now tell me - what is there to stop potential counterfeiters from reading this and start up their operation to make their buck?

 

Update. I contacted Guido, of "Guido's Rare Coins, Jewelry, Furs, and Electronics," and told him what you said. He said to tell you he has a buddy who does this, and who uses genuine $100 notes, instead of $1 notes. I asked him how he can sell them to me, then, for only $25 a note. He said, "Don't ask too many questions."

 

What if the Chinese started just making fantasy over strikes themselves? As long as it's OK to strike coins in U.S. designs that look exactly like coins that circulated except for a fantasy date not marked copy,etc why not. Perhaps the Chinese will strike the 1965 40% Franklin half dollars and other fantasy coins people would like to see. I'm sure they'd have no issue using actual U.S. coins as planchets either given the profit margins they would be able to sell these fantasy issues at. Maybe this lucrative market will lead them to stop producing counterfeits all together and just strike fantasy coins.

 

Can you buy coins with your EBT card? : - )

 

I am so disappointed...I thought that is what happened.

 

Only if you are going to put Hillary or Clarence Thomas as the portrait instead of old Ben.

 

It's rumored the Mint monitors these threads. Don't give them any bright ideas.

 

You.........uh..........have not been paying attention have you?

 

Clearly the intent of my post flew way over your head.

 

I do not change the apparent face value on anything. And I don't do anything with paper money.

 

Who says what ?

 

The question is...... what was said by whom?