eBay

dbfolks166mt · ‎11-23-2022

I purchased a couple of US Silver American Eagle coins online. Unfortunately eBay prohibits me from identifying the site and/or merchant. The coins were advertised as being silver and the image of the eagle that was posted appeared to be a genuine American Eagle coin.

The coins arrived an the appearance of the actual coin I received did not appear to be correct and certainly not the coin pictured in the listing. The first clue was the obverse was upside down. The weight and coin thickness were spot on but the diameter of the counterfeits was slightly smaller. Took the coins to a dealer and coins turned out to be silver plated copper. Not a bad counterfeit but certainly not able to pass visual inspection.

I have reported the counterfeits and the merchant to the US Secret Service, the FBI and my local police department. Opened a chargeback with my CC company and I am working with them to attempt to have the CC company ban them from allowing potential buyers from using CC's for purchasing from this vendor. Following are a couple of pictures showing the counterfeit and a real American Eagle. Lets be careful out there.

doug_5857 · ‎11-23-2022

WOW. That really sucks to have happen. They do look real. Great Catch. Was it a seller from China? Did you happen to notice how many coin were sold b4 you? I think I would have bought it as well.

Thank You for sharing.

silverstatetreasureboxes · ‎11-23-2022

@dbfolks166mt

Wow indeed! I think you covered all the proper reporting agency's. Should you also cover the US postal inspector? Sending counterfeit currency thru the mail would be a big time offense.

Thank you for sharing and the heads up.

dbfolks166mt · ‎11-23-2022

WOW. That really sucks to have happen. They do look real. Great Catch. Was it a seller from China? Did you happen to notice how many coin were sold b4 you? I think I would have bought it as well.

Thank You for sharing.

Actually a seller out of the UK. No indication of how many were sold prior to my purchase site does not provide that information. I suspect the counterfeits came out of China.

dbfolks166mt · ‎11-23-2022

@dbfolks166mt

Wow indeed! I think you covered all the proper reporting agency's. Should you also cover the US postal inspector? Sending counterfeit currency thru the mail would be a big time offense.

Thank you for sharing and the heads up.

I have not contacted the postal IG but thank you for reminding me to do that.

john_wade · ‎11-23-2022

The way to identify silver is to drop it on a table or spin it and it should have a high ring. Usually fake silver has more like a dull thud. Also, be careful about any flea markets that sell boxes or baskets full of identical fake coins that come from several foreign countries including China.

coolections · ‎11-23-2022

Did you purchase them on Ebay? There are hundreds of fake stuff selling daily. You have to do your homework when purchasing online. Please don't say you bought them from China. Please don't say you got them for a cheap price. At least you now know if you are going to invest in such a thing go to a reputable local business.

dbfolks166mt · ‎11-23-2022

Did you purchase them on Ebay? There are hundreds of fake stuff selling daily. You have to do your homework when purchasing online. Please don't say you bought them from China. Please don't say you got them for a cheap price. At least you now know if you are going to invest in such a thing go to a reputable local business.

I did not purchase them on eBay but unfortunately due to the eBay rules regarding postings I cannot say where I purchased these. The image of the coin in the posting was definitely different than the coin I received. I can spot most of the common flaws in the counterfeit Eagles but the image in the listing did not exhibit any of those but they were almost all present when I received the actual coin.

I did not get these from China I will not buy anything out of China. The price I paid was close to the current value of the coins. I generally get these from the US Mint but for some reason I neglected to order them. I had checked several local dealers but none of them had any but I ended up picking authentic ones at a gun show in my local area last weekend.

dbfolks166mt · ‎11-23-2022

The way to identify silver is to drop it on a table or spin it and it should have a high ring. Usually fake silver has more like a dull thud. Also, be careful about any flea markets that sell boxes or baskets full of identical fake coins that come from several foreign countries including China.

Yes I am familiar with the ping test but could not conduct that until I received the coins. I knew they were not silver when I did this but I took them to a local shop that has a metal tester to see what they were actually made of. I suspected copper and he confirmed that. Generally copper is used since it is close in density weight to silver.

farmalljr · ‎11-23-2022

@dbfolks166mt wrote:
The way to identify silver is to drop it on a table or spin it and it should have a high ring. Usually fake silver has more like a dull thud. Also, be careful about any flea markets that sell boxes or baskets full of identical fake coins that come from several foreign countries including China.

Yes I am familiar with the ping test but could not conduct that until I received the coins. I knew they were not silver when I did this but I took them to a local shop that has a metal tester to see what they were actually made of. I suspected copper and he confirmed that. Generally copper is used since it is close in density weight to silver.

If you are serious about buying gold/silver, you may want to invest in a Sigma Metalytics analyzer. Double redundancy is better than only one way to test metals. I own one.

I generally only buy from reputable dealers, but would not pass up saving premiums to buy privately. But I also would test each piece throughly before paying too. Silver - weight, tester, ping, pay. Gold - Weigh, test, pay.

Even when buying from a dealer, I still test every piece.

Sorry you got scammed. At least your CC company will protect you.

sextons-sweet-deals · ‎11-23-2022

Looking at your photos, they don't look good.

Did you open a case with eBay or just went directly to C.C.? I would think the seller would get some type of mark if a case was opened under eBay. I believe you can't do it now since you opened one with C.C.

dbfolks166mt · ‎11-23-2022

Looking at your photos, they don't look good.

Did you open a case with eBay or just went directly to C.C.? I would think the seller would get some type of mark if a case was opened under eBay. I believe you can't do it now since you opened one with C.C.

I didn't get the coin through eBay. Since I can't return the coin(s), it would be illegal to do so, I went directly to the CC company. In the photo's the coin on the right is actually a real one, the one on the left is the counterfeit.

pama594746 · ‎03-23-2023

I AM ON ABOUT 10TH FAKE SILVER EAGLE SELLER! 1 WAS A PAWN SHOP THAT GOOGLE SHOWS "WE BUY GOLD & SILVER" SIGN IN THE FRONT WINDOW!

SOME ARE SENDING THEM FROM AMAZON & JUST QUIT RESPONDING WHEN YOU SAY FAKE!

I RECEIVED COPPER 2021, STEEL 2022 WITH T1 REVERSE & A SLAB 2015 THAT IS REALLY A TERRIBLE JOKE OF A FAKE!

SO I HAVE TOLD EBAY EVERYTIME WITH NO REAL HELP.

I WAS CONCERNED ABOUT OTHER BUYERS & I WILL TELL YOU EBAY WILL NOT FOLLOW UO & TELL THEM TO GET THEIR PURCHASE CHECKED!

pama594746 · ‎03-23-2023

I HAVE HAD THE FAKE EAGLE SCAMMERS TOO. LOCAL LAW ACTS LIKE I AM WASTING THEIR TIME.

LAW INFORCEMENT WHERE THE PEOPLE LIVE TELL ME TO CONTACT MY LOCAL LAW.

USPS HAS ONLINE REPORTING & I HAVE ONLY EVER RECEIVED 1 EMAIL FROM A POSTAL INSPECTOR 6 MONTHS AGO & NO FOLLOW THROUGH.

NO BODY REALLY CARES.

kh-phdan · ‎03-23-2023

Hello Everyone,

Due to the age of the thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thanks for understanding!