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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 1293738, member: 112&quot;]If I understand your question correctly, yes, some do, but not many. It&#039;s one thing to know a coin is a counterfeit when you buy it. As for why they do it, some actually collect counterfeits as a niche - a separate part or area of collecting. Others use the fakes to fill a hole because they know they will never be able to afford a genuine example. No great harm in doing that.</p><p><br /></p><p>But what happens far more often is that reputable dealers unknowingly buy and sell counterfeits. This occurs because the dealers are fooled by the counterfeit and think it to be a genuine coin. And this is what I see as the real danger. Not only to the collectors who buy them thinking them as genuine coins, but to the hobby itself as a whole. For almost without exception, when the collector finds out the coin he bought he is a fake, he blames the dealer that sold it to him, thinking that the dealer knowingly ripped him off by selling him a fake.</p><p><br /></p><p>Well, that certainly happens. There are plenty of unscrupulous dealers out there who commonly, and knowingly, sell fake and altered coins. And these people deserve every bit of the bad reputation they get.</p><p><br /></p><p>But there are far more honest and trustworthy dealers who get fooled by the fakes just like the collectors do. And what separates them from the scumbags is that if you show them that the coin they sold you is a fake - they&#039;ll give you your money back.</p><p><br /></p><p>Too many collectors seem to think that all coin dealers are experts. That they can identify a fake or altered coin every time. Well they can&#039;t. As a matter of fact most coin dealers are far from experts ! They over-grade, they under-grade, they can&#039;t identify fakes or altered coins. They really don&#039;t know much more, if as much, as some collectors do. In fact some collectors know far more than some dealers. And that is why when I hear someone suggest, take it to your dealer and get his opinion - I cringe. Because depending on who your dealer is, that could be the worst thing you could ever do.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now that is not to say that there are no dealers who are experts. There most definitely are dealers who are experts. And these are the guys you need to talk to, these are the guys you need to buy coins from. And you find out who those dealers are by talking to other knowledgeable collectors, reading the coin mags (to see who writes articles), reading books (for the authors are often dealers), and by going to coin shows and talking to them. You don&#039;t have to talk to somebody for very long to find out if they know what they are talking about or not.</p><p><br /></p><p>So when someone says - <i>&quot;It disturbs me that coin dealers actually sell counterfeit coins at coin shows.&quot;&nbsp; </i>- you first have to clarify if you are talking about a dealer who knowingly sells counterfeits - or one who unknowingly sells counterfeits.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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