They are faking the 1955 cent now?

The website I linked is not the seller I am talking about. I did a google search and found you can buy these fakes from china on that website I linked. This is the seller's listing: https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m39051268996/

 

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Yes, you can blame him. The piece is not marked "COPY" so once it's out of his hands it can be palmed off on somebody else. You can also blame all of them for making and marketing this junk.

 

People will fake anything as long as there’s. money in it

 

Lincoln looks cartoonish.

 

US law requires COPY on the coin itself, on both obverse and reverse.

 

I believe that the law only requires the “COPY” mark, or something similar, to be on one side or the other.

 

Exactly where did you read this?

 

The only thing new is it is a small cent. They are doing it with almost any coin which has value now. Unfortunately they have surpassed my ability to identify them now. They used to be easy.

 

Yes, the law states either the obverse or the reverse. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-C/part-304

Even the "legal" ones I've seen to not conform to the size requirements though, particularly the bold part below:

An imitation numismatic item of incusable material shall be incused with the word “COPY” in sans-serif letters having a vertical dimension of not less than two millimeters (2.0 mm) or not less than one-sixth of the diameter of the reproduction, and a minimum depth of three-tenths of one millimeter (0.3 mm) or to one-half (1⁄2) the thickness of the reproduction, whichever is the lesser. The minimum total horizontal dimension of the word “COPY” shall be six millimeters (6.0 mm) or not less than one-half of the diameter of the reproduction.

 

Capitalism from a "Communist" country! As noted above, always trust your insticts, and always be a well educated hobbyist.

 

the 1955 DD and many other DD pennies were for sale on Chinese website for years. Before the US gov't (or someone) really clamped down on it, since then "COPY" is stamped on many. But for a long time they were producing these and who knows how many were bought and distributed.