No not counterfeit slabs. Authentic ones! I was browsing on HA and somehow I came across this Chinese coin that is slabbed by “GBCA” (Gong Bo Grading) and graded 85 (I’m guessing out of 100?). It’s interesting that it’s almost an exact copy of an NGC slab. Has anyone ever seen or heard of this before? If HA is auctioning their slabs does that mean they have a good reputation? I’ve never seen or heard of GBCA.
I think there is also another Chinese slabber that I have seen in HA auctions. I would suspect there are several others.
There are definitely several that target the Chinese market. They sometimes slab outside of their comfort zone with hysterical results... This was sold as Tibet: The QR code links to a page (http://pj.airmb.com/code-11988097) that calls it (Google Translate): [Wikipedia because I'm being lazy today] Xinjiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is a landlocked autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest of the country close to Central Asia. Link to map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auton...ia/File:China_autonomous_regions_numbered.svg It was identified here as: AFG KM-544.1 Abdur Rhaman, Kabul Mint, 1r (https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces75413.html) which is 1880-1891. So other than the grade, country, and date, a perfect attribution.
The slabs are so similar, probably because the slabs come from the same manufacturer. I mean, the chances of TPG slabs being made in the US is unfortunately minute. As far as unfamiliar TPGs go, my favorite is RNGA
