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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;doug444, post: 1895526, member: 38849&quot;]Here is an excerpt from an article in the NGC archives:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;...In the 1970s and 1980s, counterfeit gold coins were very common. It was said that many of the coins originated in Lebanon. How anyone knew this is beyond me, but these coins still show up in coin shops around the country when an estate is brought in for appraisal.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>and another excerpt&nbsp; [from Coin Talk&#039;s <i>conder 101</i>]</p><p><a href="http://www.cointalk.com/threads/gold-counterfeit-collecting-pre-33.205574/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cointalk.com/threads/gold-counterfeit-collecting-pre-33.205574/">http://www.cointalk.com/threads/gold-counterfeit-collecting-pre-33.205574/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;...During the 1950&#039;s and 1960&#039;s there were a LOT of fake US gold coins coming out of the Middle East, especially Lebanon. They coins were typically die struck and were of full weight and fineness, sometimes a little more. Why? Because at the time US citizens could not own gold, but they could own pre-1933 US gold coins. Back in the US genuine pre-1933 us gold was selling for about two and a half to three times the bullion value (With gold at $35 an oz). So these were hot items to sell to tourists (Tourism in the middle east was pretty safe back then. Egypt was a bit dicey with a couple of military coups but for the most part they left Americans alone, it was a strictly internal problem.) The tourist were able to haggle the sellers down and get a great bargain, only double melt for coins that were three times melt back home! And even better deals for scarcer dates! Of course they didn&#039;t know they were fake. The counterfeiters got their money by buying gold at melt, striking the fakes and selling them for double melt, so why skimp on the gold and possibly have it detected. After all you are already making nearly 100% over cost.</p><p><br /></p><p>A lot of these counterfeits have been melted down over the years but there are still a lot of them out there. Back when ANACS started something like 80% of all the type II gold dollars and 3 dollar gold pieces they received were fake. it has gotten a lot better but still something like 25% of them are fakes...&quot;[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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