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Message:: [QUOTE="Hobo, post: 644082, member: 11521"]Welcome to CoinTalk, KP.    Good luck with your purchase. You never know what you're getting from eBay. I hope your coins are not overgraded, overdipped, cleaned, polished, etc.   A saying you will see a lot around here is "Buy the book before the coin." Many (maybe most) collectors make the mistake of rushing out and buying coins before they know what they are doing and only realize later that they made a mistake, overpaid, bought problem coins, etc.    Do a search of CoinTalk for the  "Chinese counterfeit" and you will find lots of good info to help you get started identifying Chinese counterfeits.  Most of them are made from base metals and will weigh less than genuine examples. Most of the Chinese counterfeits have diagnostics that show them to be counterfeit, e.g., tool marks, porous surfaces, raised lumps, lack of detail, etc. BUT more recent counterfeits coming out of China are MUCH better and are within US Mint specs for weight and diameter because they are using planchets of the correct alloy. They are using lasers and computers to create their dies. Still, most of these counterfeits can be detected (if you know what to look for) but they are getting better every month.[/QUOTE]