This pawn shop owner in Alabama needs to join Coin Talk so he can learn what to look for when he buys coins. He recently got taken when he bought 40 Chinese Counterfeit Morgan Dollars from someone. If he had known to test the coins with a magnet he could have saved himself over $1,100. (For that price he could have travelled to Colorado Springs and attended the Counterfeit Detection course at Summer Seminar.) Man passes counterfeit coins at local pawn shop
It amazes me that the dealer didn't catch this. Don't get me wrong, It can happen to anybody I understand that. BUT, if your running a coin business you would think they would have noticed something fishy about the coins. I'm sure coin shops a big targets for this kind of thing, it's very unfortunate for all of us.
Pawn shop owners have been taken for a long time. Even the shrewd ones. My uncle owned a pawn shop for many years and the family was in awe of his ability to profit from every transaction. He was rumored to have valuable gold coins in his safety deposit box. After he and his wife died in the early 90s, we checked the box and found his coins. I was given the privileged of going through the collection for the purposes of dividing it among the cousins (they had no children). There I found the gold coins. all of it (about 50 pieces) was fractional gold!!!! They were all marked for sale at the prices indicated in the Red Book at about 1990 prices. Upon close examination, I determined that they were the tokens produced in large quantities as souvenirs. I have wondered since then whether he knew they were souvenir coins or if he was taken and simply didn't want anyone to know it.
I hear ya big guy (and it was nice meeting you at the Burlington NJ show), but unforunately even dealers are having a tough time detecting the newer crop of Chinese fakes (i.e., Susan Headley's F.U.N. convention experiment a few years back). I doubt if the coins were steel (I have yet to see a "replica" coin that's magnetic, but I've only become familiar with them over the past five years) unless they were really old fakes. I ran a little test myself a few years ago, purchasing a bust dollar from one of the better known Chinese counterfeiters. His auction page stated "90% silver", which, after receipt, it appeared to be. Everything seemed correct about the coin... the wear characteristics, the patina, the edge letttering... so I took it down the road to the local B&M. After a five minute examination by the owner (including a "ring" test), he offered me $900. That's when I gave him the bad news, and scared the pants off of him at the same time. So, you are correct my friend when you state "it's very unforunate for all of us".
They only had one picture, out of focus, but it didn't look that good to me. He wasn't running a coin business, he was running a pawn shop, not the same thing.
I have several Chinese Counterfeits that stick to a magnet. Many (most?) of the bottom tier of Chinese fakes are base metal that is magnetic. Their higher-quality counterfeits will pass the magnet test.
Wonder why the police are getting involved? The seller will claim to have not known they were fakes and the buyer should have paid better attention.
Well, the article says he used a fradulent NJ driver's license, which probably would have gotten the police involved anyway. Other than that, if he legimately did not know the coins were fake, then he should have just returned the money. I'm thinking he knew they were phoney, and by selling them as genuine, committed fraud.
I have mixed feeling about this situation. First, I feel bad for the pawn shop owner. However, thinking about it, I would like to know what shape they were in. If they were in folders, I am assuming uncirculated. Some probably were "rare" dates, (had they been real), so if these coins were real we might have been looking at 10-20k worth of Morgans. If that is the case, I am quite happy that pawn shop got taken, since it serves them right for being little better than a "gold show" ripoff artist. Maybe the pawn shop owner shouldn't have been so greedy and called in a coin expert. If the coins were real he might have had to pay more, but at least they would have known they were real. This transaction stinks both ways if my assumptions are right. Chris P.S. I don't have a problem with a man making money, but if these were real and a little old lady selling them, I think the pawn shop would be ripping her off big time, and they are supposed to be the experts.
At the very old time the condition of utah pawn shop was not good but now , at the present time i think it is very best to deal there.
That is just crazy... They need to take a little more time inspecting the coins before they make any kind of payments. Jim is right. There are some very realistic Chinese junk out there.
Steel? I'd like to see pics of those coins. I bet most coin collectors wouldn't have even needed a magnet to know they were questionable.
Who was the crook? The dealer who got ripped off? Or the dealer who tried to rip off the seller? Who thought that he had very rare 1906 Morgan $'s. Or they look like that date in that crummy picture.
Everyone has to remember one thing about pawn shops. They are expert on nothing. The only thing they look at is buying as low as they can so they can sell for high profits.
