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Message:: [QUOTE="ToughCOINS, post: 2138263, member: 20480"]Today's counterfeits are good enough to deceive most collectors and many less experienced dealers.  Not all, but many . . . especially those who test for gold content.  That's because testing often instills a false sense of security.  Far better to know what a real mint product looks like than to rely on dimensions, weight and gold content, all of which modern counterfeiters have mastered the reproduction of. There are exceptions of course, but the really big bullion dealers see so many coins of the same type that any fakes presented to them are almost certainly going to stick out, and be turned away.  It's a learned thing, almost intangible, how an extremely experienced dealer can determine in a split second that the coin doesn't look right, even while not necessarily knowing why. I think the biggest danger is not knowing which dealers lack a true numismatic background, as there are those who got started in shopping malls, hotel conference rooms and even in parking lots, and not as true collectors. The ones you can trust best trust to safeguard your interests are those with deep numismatic knowledge, including a strong understanding of the minting process, from start to finish.  It is they who are best equipped to identify good fakes, because of the steps that counterfeiters do not include in making their coins.[/QUOTE]