eBay

dbfolks166mt · ‎08-30-2023

There was a posting on or about 28 August describing a buyers experience with purchasing fake coins out of China. That post and all the responses were removed for some reason as this one may be as well. During my years collecting coins I have acquired a number of fake/counterfeit US coins some where very good counterfeits and some were very bad attempts.

There are a lot of postings on eBay as well as other forums where you can identify attempts at passing off counterfeit coins simply by looking at the listing. If the price seems too good to be true it's generally a dead giveaway. Nobody sells a $1 American Eagle silver coin for $4 unless it is counterfeit or they don't know what they are doing.

While the National Coin Hobby Act allows anyone to produce copy/replica coins there are very specific standards for doing so and some producers are not following these. The following article explains some of the requirements.

https://www.sbcgold.com/blog/4-reasons-avoid-buying-replica-coins/

One of the big things with regards to eBay is while the seller may specify returns accepted if you purchase one of these coins and identify it as counterfeit or fake you are prohibited by the USPS as well as other Federal laws from sending the coin back. To do so would in fact make you as guilty of passing counterfeit coinage as the seller was when they sold the item.

One of the best counterfeit coins I ever purchased, unknowingly at the time, was a 2022 American Silver Eagle. The price was in the market range and the images looked real. Whenever I receive a coin I check the size with a micrometer and the weight with a digital scale. Both were within tolerances for this coin as was the toning for an uncirculated coin but it did not pass the sound test so I took it to a coin shop that had a metal analyzer and the coin turned out to be silver plated copper with a few other metals which is how they got the weight so close.

Because of the eBay return policy which would have required me to potentially return the item on a NAD I simply filed a NAD with my CC company and was refunded. I am in the Washington DC area so I turned the seller information and the coin over to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The officer at the Bureau told me it's a HUGE problem and they can do little to stop it.

kabilab · ‎08-30-2023

dbfolks166mt

Preview

dbfolks166mt shares-- There was a posting on or about 28 August describing a buyers experience with purchasing fake coins out of China. That post and all the responses were removed for some reason as this one may be as well.

kabilab comments--I wondered why that thread had been removed. Does anyone have thoughts on the reason?

Preview

maxine*j · ‎08-30-2023

@dbfolks166mt wrote:
...During my years collecting coins I have acquired a number of fake/counterfeit US coins some where very good counterfeits and some were very bad attempts...
One of the best counterfeit coins I ever purchased, unknowingly at the time, was a 2022 American Silver Eagle... the coin turned out to be silver plated copper with a few other metals... I am in the Washington DC area so I turned the seller information and the coin over to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The officer at the Bureau told me it's a HUGE problem and they can do little to stop it.

Random thoughts:

I am sure that what the officer told you is sadly true.

The demand always exceeds the supply for anything of value. So, we have fake Gallé glass, fake Meissen porcelain, fake Staret jewellery, fake Buddy Lee dolls, you-name-it -- and there may be more faked coins than any other faked thing.

The market for coins is gigantic, far outstripping the supply, with some people collecting coins as small pieces of history and art, some collecting purely for the monetary value, many people collecting with an eye to both. Boy, oh, boy, are the fakes gonna fly with a market like that!

One of my brothers was a coin collector and I still remember the first fakes he bought, back in the early 1950s, were fake 18th Century coins. That's when he learned (and I did, as younger sister taking it all in) that in the 1700s counterfeit coins were such a problem that governments all over Europe passed all sorts of "Coin Acts" but succeeded in doing not much more than putting a dent in the supply of fakes.

Fast forward to today: More people than ever wanting coins. More sophisticated techniques than ever to make fake coins. More sophisticated ways than ever to detect fake coins. More venues than ever to sell fake coins.

I'm glad coins are not an interest of mine because I would have no idea how to protect myself from anything more than the most obvious and crude fakes.

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coolections · ‎08-30-2023

The person is not well educated if they think they can buy from China at a too good to be true deal.

toomuchstuffagain35 · ‎08-30-2023

I'm not sure why you'd buy US coins from China in the first place.

Although I HAVE bought Australian coins from sellers in the US.

"If a product doesn't sell, raise the price" - Reese Palley
"If it sold FAST, it was priced too low" - also Reese Palley

dbfolks166mt · ‎08-30-2023

dbfolks166mt shares-- There was a posting on or about 28 August describing a buyers experience with purchasing fake coins out of China. That post and all the responses were removed for some reason as this one may be as well.

kabilab comments--I wondered why that thread had been removed. Does anyone have thoughts on the reason?

About the only reason I could think it may have been removed is because the buyer identified the particular item number which if followed could lead to the seller ID and other information.

luckythewinner · ‎08-30-2023

@dbfolks166mt wrote:
There was a posting on or about 28 August describing a buyers experience with purchasing fake coins out of China. That post and all the responses were removed for some reason as this one may be as well.

Did it get removed, or did it just get moved to the BUYING board since it was about BUYING from a buyer's perspective and not about SELLING from a seller's perspective?

maxine*j · ‎08-30-2023

@luckythewinner wrote:
@dbfolks166mt wrote:
There was a posting on or about 28 August describing a buyers experience with purchasing fake coins out of China. That post and all the responses were removed for some reason as this one may be as well.
Did it get removed, or did it just get moved to the BUYING board since it was about BUYING from a buyer's perspective and not about SELLING from a seller's perspective?

If there are folks who don't already know the trick: To see if a thread has been moved or is entirely gone, I click on My Profile, then click on Replies (not on Posts). If I find the reply I made, I click on the thread title and it takes me to the moved thread in its new location. If the reply I made is not to be seen, the thread has been removed.

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ten_o_nine · ‎08-30-2023

@luckythewinner

Moderators usually state the post "has been moved" and provide a link to the board it was moved to.

ten_o_nine · ‎08-30-2023

@dbfolks166mt

They could have edited the post and removed the item number, not the post. I really wanted to find out the outcome.

greatmidwestcoin · ‎08-30-2023

As a coin dealer and collector of over 50 years, I have seen a lot. I recall seeing photos of a warehouse room in China that housed thousands of dies for fake coins. This is no different than the fake US Postage stamp scams that have flooded the market with fake Forever stamps. I even see ads for them on Google. Most likely this is why the USPS is losing massive amounts of money as they can't even begin to keep up with these fakes. Yet people continue to buy them and don't question buying a roll of 100 Forever stamps for $25.

dbfolks166mt · ‎08-30-2023

@luckythewinner wrote:
@dbfolks166mt wrote:
There was a posting on or about 28 August describing a buyers experience with purchasing fake coins out of China. That post and all the responses were removed for some reason as this one may be as well.
Did it get removed, or did it just get moved to the BUYING board since it was about BUYING from a buyer's perspective and not about SELLING from a seller's perspective?

If there are folks who don't already know the trick: To see if a thread has been moved or is entirely gone, I click on My Profile, then click on Replies (not on Posts). If I find the reply I made, I click on the thread title and it takes me to the moved thread in its new location. If the reply I made is not to be seen, the thread has been removed.

Exactly how I figure out it had been removed. I had posted two replies to the post and both were gone.

littleoldcricketbug · ‎09-09-2023

eBay removed it because eBay is breaking federal law by allowing the sale of counterfeit coins on their platform, while at the same time shutting down legitimate coin auctions like mine!

littleoldcricketbug · ‎09-09-2023

Another problem is that the Chinese are now selling their fake coins in the US. When I do searches for items I can specifiy US ONLY auctions but I see the same fake items sold out of Cali and NJ.