Scary Counterfeit PCGS Holder

I have been given this piece by some dealers "in the know" and have been told that it is not a genuine PCGS holder. The coin is definitely genuine but the holder apparently is not.

I was told that the top of the barcode on this piece is one of the indicators... Any of you slab guys want to dissect this one?? I can get more pictures.

 

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Yes, scary. It was just a matter of time, though. I am sure they will fix whatever is incorrect and the next round will be even closer to an exact match.

The ramifications, especially to those who have invested heavily in "condition rarities" and the like, are huge. Not being sure if the slab is legimate or not takes away a ton of the value of items heavily valued mainly due to their PCGS grade, no?

Yeah, I think I am sticking to my dirty old ancients, and AU US coins.

 

I hope at least the Morgan is genuine ( oh yes my mistake ! you have mentioned it ! )

 

But, it sure doesn't look like a 65.

 

That would be the scam. Authentic coin, but just lower grade, that you put in a fake PCGS holder. How many buyers never question the grade? I would say a lot of them.

 

Not an expert by any means, but to my untrained eye the PCGS "holo" label looks like it "wavers" in the section between their logo and the image of the coin. Not sure if it's just how it's cut out, or if that's something else I'm picking up on.

 

Just as scary as the real PCGS holders at one of the local shops here, that contain counterfiet coins that were graded by PCGS as legit!

 

Wow. That one is really good. No doubt the counterfeiters watch for feedback on coin forums.

The only thing I see that makes me suspicious is the raggedness of the top of the individual bars in the bar code. The genuine one is better formed, straighter at the top. First image below is your fake. Second is a real one. (Excuse the pix. They are cropped from some old slab shots that didn't matter.)

The barcodes have gotten better, as have the fonts (size, style, serifs, etc.). The hologram looks a little too good compared to what I examined but it checks out. I didn't study the holder.
Lance.

 

Looks easy to me; one looks like it was printed on a ink jet!

 

This is one of those dates where there is a rather large jump from lower MS to gem, so it's safe to assume that if the coin is real and the slab is not, this is nothing more than a way to increase value.


ebay item #: 221100439533

 

Well there been rampant speculation that in places like Hong kong there have been a lot of counterfeit panda's in fake slabs hiting the market so it is only matter of time this happens' to all coins. As i keep saying it is easier to fake a slab that costs a couple dollars to make at most rather than go thru the trouble of making a counterfeit coin the matches the real deal.

 

This coin has bot been submitted to PCGS because if it is indeed counterfeit... which it is... they will destroy it.

 

It looks to me that the barcode is indeed the dead giveaway. The fake one has a choppy barcode that looks as though it was printed by a jet ink printer. The authentic PCGS barcode is crisp and flat. I'll have to take a closer look at the barcodes when I buy slabs now. Thanks for the info.

 

Really??!! It isn't their property, I would think the most they could do was notify the cops.

 

Can you explain? Not sure if i missed anything but those barcodes' look pretty crisp.

 

Question since I don't know - wouldn't the serial number (or whatever it's called with the barcode) look up falsely (or not show up at all) if you go to look it up on PCGS' site? Wouldn't that be also an indication of it being fake?

Obviously if you can't see the number to go look it up, i.e. fuzzy pic or excluded from auction/description, you can't.

I haven't yet bought a graded coin, so I'm not familiar with that part of it yet. However, I am planning on grading some of mine, so I'm still learning about the whole process there.

 

Don't tell them that, they think every coin is their property. We just have temporary custody.