MOrgan Fakes ?

I love these coins , for what reason I am not sure.
Have a lot of them been counterfeited ?
With the open door policy in China they readily admit by their own law that it is legal to counterfeit any coin before 1949 . I Imagine that pushes for slabs in a lot of areas.
The Chinese keeping TPGs in business. Is it not a great world ?
Pep

 

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TONS have been counterfeited.
I'd stick with PCGS/NGC graded ones only. (But even sometimes, those slabs are fakes)

It is a scary market out there...just gotta be careful

 

As T$ said there are a lot, and I mean a lot of fakes, especially for the better dates, but even the common dates are counterfeited.

 

These days they are counterfeiting the common dates like crazy too. Gone are the days where you just had to worry about the keys. Also, these fakes coming out of China look really good...so you have to be careful.

 

Besides the raw fakes, which are common on eBay, you will find fake Morgans in fake slabs bearing PCGS, NGC, and ANACS logos. Some of them are extremely deceptive. Most are from sellers based in Asia, but we have seen some offered by US sellers. They are generally rare dates and mintmarks-- 93-s, 89-cc, for instance.

 

Lots of fakes out there. Most are crude fakes made from pot metal and sold to tourists. Some are up a level and die struck from silver planchets but the dies are wrong, or mismatched and an observant person can spot them. At the high end, they get close to the real thing and would fool most collectors, and many dealers. Buying slabbed is not a defense, because they are also faking the plastic. It is a scary world out there. The early fake slabs have obvious defects. Those defects are relatively easy to correct, so I am thinking that the current production run of fake slabs will be near perfect in visual appearance.

Best to buy from reputable long time dealers, who will stand behind their coins if they do turn out to be fakes. And even they may get fooled on occasion, but will make it good.

There is a long and growing list of coins that I will not buy from anonymous online sellers, slabbed or raw, because the fake coins and fake slabs are getting so good. Most all the key date and better date Morgan dollars are on that list.

Be careful out there. A little education will help against the crude fakes and the medium level fakes. Against the best quality fakes, only maybe the top 5% of collectors in terms of expertise will stand a decent chance.

 

Morgans

Does any one feel older slabs might be a better safety net ?
Coins in general are getting to be a difficult item when key coins are counterfeited. If slabs are also done then collecting older coins is a real difficult proposition.
Pay more at the mint for a gold piece, or buy a raw old gold piece that has a high probability of being a fake.
It seems the mint has had some sets that have done well over the last 15 years.

Pep

 

Knowledge

In difficult times a site such as this with people who have seen the good, bad ,and the ugly transactions it really helps to have strong voices on this whole business of fakes.

Thanks one and all
Pep