I met a friend yesterday who I advised some time ago to buy "silver". He is not a coin collector and I meant bullion because silver has been predicted to have some dramatic upturns for some time. He turned up yesterday with around 20 coins he had bought from Etsy and Ebay and wanted me to give an opinion. Here are just two examples. All are in "PCGS" holders and bought on line from the USA. There were several Morgan dollars mainly Carson City MS 63 and above. I was somewhat taken aback at a collection potentially worth six figures. I asked him what he had spent and none were more than $50.00. I told him that they were all fake or stolen. Here is the scary bit. I looked up the number on the holders and the "identical" coins came up. I could tell the difference but he couldn't. Clearly these slabs are made to deceive and in the wrong hands very dangerous. Here is the PCGS verification on one of these fake slabs. https://www.pcgs.com/cert/15199422 This could easily fool someone focused on the bargain not the reality. One point is that if these originated from China but are being circulated from the USA surely there is a crime being committed. The other point is that now I would never totally rely on a coin in a TPG slab to be genuine. I dare say that people handling hundreds of slabs can immediately identify a bad one by subtleties such as type face or hologram but for many the plastic was the guarantee. Someone with a modicum of intelligence doing basic research would appreciate that such a coin at $50 cannot be real unless some philanthropic billionaire was playing games, but outside of the circus of eBay people could be hurt by such deception. It's quite subtle too , to chose a lower grade coin but valuable coin that has been graded. Even the most gullible would think twice about a high grade coin offered at a low value. A collector might consider a $5000 coin a bargain at say $3000 with a good back story, such as dealers margins, hard times etc but probably not at $5000 or at the other end $50.00. Due diligence enters somewhere. As for TPG's, I've had a coin authenticated by a museum, including XRF analysis, condemned as fake amongst other interesting scenarios that will be the subject for a future post. Authority is no substitute for authenticity. I have seen previous posts on fake slabs and as always caveat emptor but the authority the TPG's once had is becoming eroded. Someone on another forum has highlighted that there are now fake Chinese websites purporting to be PCGS or NCG that will "confirm" the fake coin. It gets worse. Quote
There is no substitute for common sense, when pricing alone makes it unthinkable. Your friend is a novice, so he gets a pass. Neither one of those slabs has a PCGS hologram, I've been seeing a lot of that. I've also been seeing coins that have legitimate PCGS registration numbers, but the coins don't come close to matching true views. The scary ones are coins that don't have true views.
@Dafydd.......... you posted " As for TPG's, I've had a coin authenticated by a museum, including XRF analysis, condemned as fake amongst other interesting scenarios that will be the subject for a future post. Authority is no substitute for authenticity." I look forward to seeing this post. Very interesting! Please mention me so I don't miss it. I have a coin I'd love to take to a Fun Show for Jack Young to look at. Same scenario. Thanks.
