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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 2227046, member: 112&quot;]You&#039;re asking a lot of questions, even within your numbered questions there are several different questions.</p><p><br /></p><p>1 - The internet has had both a positive and a negative effect. It helps collectors learn how to identify fakes, and it helps counterfeiters learn how to correct their mistakes. </p><p><br /></p><p>While you can look at pictures of a coin on the internet and discuss if it is genuine or not, about the only time you can confirm that a coin is a fake is when it is poorly made or it has known diagnostics. But with well made fakes, you cannot prove it is genuine or counterfeit simply by looking at pictures. And in hand examination made by someone qualified to do it is required.</p><p><br /></p><p>As I said, the internet has affected the hobby in both positive and negative ways in regard to counterfeiting. But there is no way to say it is more of one than the other. And no, the hobby would not have been better off without the internet. In that regard the advantages far outweigh any disadvantages.</p><p><br /></p><p>2 - Are counterfeiters today better skilled than in the days of old ? Absolutely not. There are counterfeits that were made in the 1700&#039;s and 1800&#039;s that still fool the TPGs on a regular basis. But there are very few that were made in recent years that fool them.</p><p><br /></p><p>Have the skills of any of the modern counterfeiters improved ? Without question, yes. But that is only when you consider what their skills were when they started as compared to now.</p><p><br /></p><p>3 - You&#039;re asking if technology will allow counterfeiters to make fakes good enough to fool everyone. Well as I said, even 250 years ago technology was good enough to allow them to fool almost everybody, even those considered to be experts today. So that&#039;s kind of a rhetorical question isn&#039;t it ? </p><p><br /></p><p>You see, it&#039;s not a question of technology, it&#039;s a question of skill and desire. The technology to make perfect counterfeits has existed for centuries, the counterfeiters don&#039;t need new technology to do that. Could new technology make it easier for them ? Yes, of course, but so what ? If there is new technology that makes it easier to make the fakes, then it is also logical that there will be new technology to help identify them.</p><p><br /></p><p>So will counterfeits eventually destroy the hobby ? Not a chance. Counterfeits have existed as long as coins have existed, so has the hobby. And we are still here <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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