Would You Buy a Chinese Counterfeit to Suppliment a Real Coin?

I was talking to a friend of mine whos also into coins and somehow this subject came up and it got me thinking for a topic here.

If your a type collector on a limited income for your collecting, would you purchase a real good Chinese counterfeit of very rare coins I.E. a chain cent, Flowing Hair anything or even a Stella?

Even though you know it's fake and if your smart, you make notes that it is, would purchasing such a coin give you a sense of accomplishment that you have a real good fake of a otherwise unobtainable coin that you can admire just from the artistic look of such coin?

Have any of you ever done so? Especially with a trade dollar or seated dollar?

 

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A lot of people buy replicas to fill in holes they otherwise couldn't afford to fill. However, there's a major difference between a replica and a counterfeit. I for one would never buy a counterfeit from China, as thats perpetrating the problem.
Guy~

 

I actually bought as couple Chinese fakes. However, I bought them with the sole purpose of leaving them negative feedback. That I did.

 

No way. If I say anymore I'll get canned...

 

No!

 

Would you give a nuclear weapon to a terrorist?

Buying a counterfeit for any reason would only serve to support them.

Chris

 

I wouldn't mind having some, but I think it's illegal to even own one, so better not.

 

I don't know if it's legal, buy I've always wondered if people collected that kind of stuff.

 

Nope. An empty slot is better than a fake. I have considered it though.

 

No, I would not buy a coin that is obviously a counterfeit, regardless of the country of origin. A well executed copy, however, would be fine with me if I actually wanted to fill an empty spot in my collection. But that "if" should be emphasized; in most cases I would leave the spot empty.

Christian

 

Never will buy a Chinese fake , someone down the line is going to have it end up in his collection thinking it;s real . There;s a reason they;re called fantasy coins .
rzage

 

Nope that I would never do. The problem is that so many do buy them. Counterfeit coins have always been on the market and will always be on the market. They are getting better and better in making the coins and they are selling them as the real deal. Something you can see on so many sites now.

 

I bought two fake Chinese coins. They were not to supplement anything, I liked the way they look and I feel it helps for educational purposes, and my son likes them. I didn't buy them from anyone in China! I bought one from a guy at my coin club for $3 dollars and I bought one off of Ebay from a US seller for $5. I hope all the pics came out, this new format is xomething else!!

 

Do not buy fake coins!!! Even if they are for the purpose of educating.
As time goes buy you can be sure the coin will get marketed as real..could be 10 or 100 yrs from now but it will happen
do not encourage these chinese crooks in any way.

 

Hell, no.

 

I understand the emotion about the subject, but sometimes boycotts only seems to serve as advertisements and attracts more business in the long run than not. Even if tens of thousands of knowledgeable US collectors bought the chinese counterfeits, it would only be a small portion. Yet the benefits of the education and exposure ( Such as by magazine articles, blogs, etc. might benefit many more collectors and reduce the influx more so, than not having them to observe and characterize with diagnostics. As for their future effect after the current owner is no longer such, use of a letter punch or a engraver or mototool, one can scribe "COPY" large enough and deep enough to satisfy the government requirement and one's own sense of ethics. IMO.

Jim

 

never, no how, no way...


They have enough of our $..

 

I have never bought a counterfeit on purpose, other than with groups the counterfeits came with. I have a small punch labelled "copy" that I punch any coin I KNOW is counterfeit. If I am unsure, I just label the tag as such.

Its a very slippery slope. I understand collectors wanting to be completionists, but you have to remember that even if YOU know its a forgery, now that it is produced the next owner may not. I was the only non US collector at a coin club, so therefor I was the "expert" in all non-US coins and always had coins brought to me. I must have had 100 ancient Jewish coins and 50 ancient Chinese coins brought to me for authentication, and not one of them were real. The original owners probably knew they were fakes, but the current owners thought they were real and many thought I was lying to them.

Bottom line, any new copies made after I believe 1978 are illegal if not stamped "copy" on them. Do yourselves and the hobby a favor and make sure any copies you own follow the law. If not, these copies from China may kill the hobby. It already has for a lot of Chinese collecting. Most people in China are afraid of buying coins there for fear of fakes. Do we want that to happen here?

 

No, never!

However, I like RLM's idea....it'd be great to nuke a few sellers with some neg feedback, then beat the coin with a hammer so it never goes to a collector by "accident".

 

I have to do a LOT of digging and scratching to get the money I want for legit coins.
No way I'm going to waste any on a counterfeit. Or replica.