The counterfeit/ fake PCGS slab problem seems to be growing exponentially…

Spartan, here's the thing with those so-called "shady" dealers...once they've been made, they suffer reputational damage that is very difficult to recover from. It has the cascading effect on their business which hurts their bottom line.

This reminds me of Warren Buffet's famous quote:

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that you'll do things differently.”

 

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Been done!

Fake PCGS Slabs!? Learn how to spot them! - YouTube

 

Fifteen years ago you could. That was when the first fake slabs were just starting to appear, and the fake coins weren't good enough to get past the major TPGS.

 

more fakes found ...
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/315514077099
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/315566905465
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/204895286517
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/204895284949
always check seller's feedback score and comments

 

Yeah, that last one's barcode scans as a Hawaii 1883 $1 in XF45 (listing is a France 1815-A 20 francs). In fact all four of those listings have the same barcode on different coins, two different sellers in Poland. Always scan the barcode!

 

So true but you can add to the quote by saying a ruined reputation is likely never restored.

Bruce

 

The China sellers couldn't care less. They'll sell their garbage to unsuspecting customers cheaply. Dealers won't participate in this as a rule, like you say, reputations to maintain. It's the casual collector who resells a slabbed coin for a big profit that's the problem. Neither the seller nor buyer is even aware of it usually. Then these fakes slowly get funneled into the mainstream of collecting. That's a huge problem.

 

more fake
https://www.ebay.com/itm/285974504472
https://www.ebay.com/itm/285974520650
Located in: Kamianske, Ukraine
Beware of these dodgy place, poor country without law

seems like organised crime, tons of newly registered seller like
yelyzkra_24 (0) selling fake coins from dodgy country

https://www.ebay.com/itm/176482503523
Located in: Wroclaw, Poland
adriiwan_0(0)

 

grrrrrrrrr

 

I spent about 40 years importing products from China. I learned to be really careful with everything. They will counterfeit almost anything and many folks in the US helped them. Someone in the US would send them a sample of a product and China could create the tooling and be making product in only a few days.
When they found something that made a good profit, they went into high gear. Once the US factory caught wind of it, it was too late. The counterfeit item was already being sold all over the US.

All the factory could do is have lawyers send out letters to those in the US selling the counterfeits. The letters were a demand to see invoices and to pull the product from the shelf. Customs did not have a chance to stop the flow.

At this point there is no way to stop counterfeit coins or the holders from coming into the US. Those in the US that make copies of coins did not help the matter.

We can all be thankful for folks like Jack that take the time to teach what we should be watching for.

 

That stuff is all over the street markets in Thailand. Designer this that and the other thing. None of it is real, and even the official stores in the malls I have doubts. What's really serious is when it's airplane parts. Of course it would be done in the US if it wasn't so cheap to do it in China.

 

I may have asked before but do the counterfeit slabs most often contain counterfeit coins or authentic coins with bloated grades?

 

Mostly counterfeit coins. There are some with lower graded genuine coins but that is the minority of the problem that I have documented.

 

And then there was that guy cracking genuine NGC slabs with genuine coins and replacing them with inferior coins. I don't know how that wasn't obvious to buyers right away but eventually he was caught.

 

Jack. Come back

 

That’s crazy

 

Sorry for the necro post but is this a legit PCGS slab? Saw this one tonight. There is no PCGS in the bottom right hand corner of the obverse. ??? I looked at the PCGS site to compare coins but it's tough to tell due to differences in camera lighting.

 

Nothing wrong with it. PCGS is there, barcode scans properly, many marks match the PCGS image here https://www.pcgs.com/cert/52756305

 

Thank you. I stared at the original photo and it did not show up like yours! Now I'm paranoid about graded coins too.

 

Maybe some are in your collection already.