When you read that article you need to be sure that you realize something - ALL three of the so-called "Micro O" Morgan varieties, the 1896-O, 1900-O, and 1902-O, are actually contemporary counterfeits. This means every single coin - there is no such thing as a genuine example of the micro O variety for these 3 dates !! And that includes ALL coins already slabbed - by any of the grading companies.
The above is a quote from the article from PCGS. No statute of limitations here as discussed in another thread. Takes a lot of character to publish this info and stand by their buy-back guarantee. This will cost PCGS several thousand dollars, but is worth 100 times that in good PR. I'm impressed. Of course, I'd have been really impressed if they decided the first one they saw was counterfeit.
Reimburse current value? Isn't current value basically "0"? Seems like a nice gesture on their part at first glance, but they made a market for a coin by authenticating it, then the market is ruined by their coming clean. Seems like they need to proactively set a price for damages. Either that or a court will.
Someone else pointed out the impact to the Top 100 Morgan list. Those three coins are on it. Some of the markings shown in the PCGS article can be seen in the Top 100 photos. Very interesting news.
Well it is time to break out the old Morgans and see just what I have. Hopefully nothing of this nature rests in my collection! Thanks for the info GDJMSP!
Unless the slabbed ones bring a premium in their own right...ie as a collectable counterfit. Per the quote, PCGS has slabbed 95 of them, which makes for a small population. Hmmmmm.....maybe that's why PCGS is so hot to buy them back. Nothing like having slabbed conterfits bringing a premium, and a premium of bad press with it
And what about those slabbed by OTHER grading companies ? And what about those that are still raw sitting in a dealer's display case or those raw examples owned by collectors ? There could be literally thousands of these things out there. Don't forget - they've been around for over 100 yrs already fooling everybody !!
Thanks for the alert Doug, when I first heard this I felt sick. Then they have just finished checking all the Morgans of these dates with the "O" mint mark and I'm relieved to say, they didn't fine a single one of them in any of the sets. Thanks again.
I'm glad I could never afford any of them... I think I just read that someone at NGC knew about this a year ago.... and NGC stopped certifying them because they were "probably counterfeit".
PCGS pops report says there are 95 of them, but how long have they been identifying and tracking the micro O for those dates? I don't believe they have been tracking the top 100 VAM's that long. There may be more of them in older slabs than appear in the pops.
Does anyone get the VAM-E newsletter? If you don't, you can for free. Great weekly info on VAMs. Delivered through email. It has an interesting article about the micro O's. There's talk going back to 1998; an investigation in 2000. You can subscribe to it by sending an email to cuboard@varslab.com. Previous issues can be found at this link (on left).
