I went to my local dealer, because I had a long lunch. I got to the store and proceeded to look in the case. There were two mercury dimes a 21 and 21-d both in XF from the look on the obverse, but with a cleaned appearance. I asked to see them and when I was looking at them under a 16X loupe I noticed that the 21 seemed skinnier than they should be and the surface seemed grainy. I flipped them over and sure enough, I could see an a casting line on the very edge of the of the reverse, and some casting bubbles, on both coins. I let my dealer know and he took out a couple of genuine examples out of the case and we did a side by side comparison. Except for the digits and the casting line the coins were near spot on. Scary. Well, the dealer pulled them out and is going to talk to the fellow they were on consignment from, just to see how he got these coins into his possession. He'll let me know what kind of outcome comes out of this, but I find it incredible that I'm seeing good counterfeits in small town.
What's scary is, the dealer just assumes everything that comes in is real and wouldn't bother to even glance at them, if he even knew what to look for.
With the Chinese knocking them out by the millions it was only a matter of time before they reached to all segments of the industry , sad and scary . Education is the key , and sites like this one are our only hope . rzage
Oddly enough, I was at my dealer's shop yesterday and he showed me his big box of fakes, saw some very scary $2 1/2 and $5 and a good fake $3 golds.
My guess is it's a local collector the dealer knows well and he didn't even think to look. Thanks for sharing this with us! :thumb: Ribbit
Chinese counterfeits - coming soon to a coin dealer near you. How true. And it cannot be stated too much.
I could see this becoming a real threat to our hobby. What happens if the fakes become so good that even the tpg's can't even tell the difference? I bet the value of all coins will plummet.
Please read this post that I made last December: http://www.cointalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=472115&postcount=13
The harm is, that I and many others have REAL MONEY tied up in these coins. Even Fat Cats can become Skinny Cats. If I own a 1969-S FS-101 MS64 RD PCGS Doubled Die Lincoln (mine and maybe bhp3rd's favorite coin?) and the population all of a sudden surges from Pop. 20 (or whatever) to Pop. 2,000 the prices plummet. That is real harm. Best Regards, George ============== VDB Coins
I believe that every person that has $1 in their collection has REAL MONEY tied up in their coins. My collection may not be worth a million dollars, but if I lost it, or spent $10, $20, $50, $100, $1000 on a counterfeit coin it would make an impact on my collection and the way I approach the hobby.
I read Susan Headley's article (Feb. 2 issue of Coin World) "Chinese fakes deceive some FUN dealers" and it appears that many dealers have a hard time distinguishing real from fake. With coins struck from dies that are made with laser technology, planchets made from correct alloys... well, the writing is on the wall. Unless a dealer (or collector) can identify incorrect surface or metal flow characteristics, the problem with forgeries is only going to get worse.
I don't disagree with you and didn't mean to imply otherwise. And I don't want a fake, even if it is indistinguishable from the real thing. If there's a flaw in my logic, so be it. I'm flawed anyway! :whistle: Best Regards, George ======================= VDB Coins
Mantra when buying slabbed: "Assume nothing." There are fake slabs out there too. And I don't mean fly-by-night self slabbers or third tier companies.
