How Do You Ensure.....

I agree that ebay will return your money - just make sure you ask for not only original postage charges but also return postage charges. Check the rate yourself on USPS so that if the seller is in China (for the sake of argument) that you can include tracking and return receipt. Many times (especially when the seller is an outright fraud) they will say keep the coin rather than pay return shipping which is more than the item is worth. Then you have a teaching example of a fraud for future reference.

Relying on slabs as a guarantee of authenticity has been a problem for a long time. Not only do fakes and counterfeits find their way into legitimate slabs but several scams are run with fake slabs.

The picture in the auction may well be a legitimate genuine coin in a genuine holder (these are captured from many sources). However, the seller never owned the coin and sends a forgery. In most cases, it is obvious so make sure you file for a refund.

There are actually statistics I compiled that show over half of coin buyers who purchase forgeries NEVER file a case.

So after arrival check everything about the coin and the holder. Post strike scratches, toning are good for the coin itself but do not miss looking for scratches on the holder, extra glue and casting features in the plastic slab and positions of the printed elements on the identification paper.

I recall one nearly perfect slab that I caught only by matching the position of one of the numerals with the bar code strip. They did not line up identically. The coin received was a fake in a fake slab. However the forger did a great job with that fake down to scratches and even a toning spot. I had to prove to the ebay manager the slab was bad before they terminated the auction. Others including a couple of the committee thought it was genuine because the ID matched and the coin looked like a match.

If I can find the pictures I saved of that auction I will post them. My ebay referral file is over 20,000 items long and I saved only 13 months worth. A file for all 7 years the committee operated would likely exceed millions of coins. I just wish I now had access to all of the past data - it would be a valuable search resource.

I was able to find a two examples of errors in the slab serial number:

The first is a 1797 US dollar:



The second is a 1893-S Morgan dollar:



These illustrate the point.

Yes I posted the same image twice accidently. The ebay version was not photographed square to the holder so there is an angle. You are exactly correct that the bar code seems to be made up.

When I copied the file to make this post I apparently over wrote the 1893 S file with the 1797 data.

The bar code did not match the numbers in both cases. Also the numbers on the ebay example were not sharp at the edges as is typical for PCGS printers. Since the PCGS and coin looked fairly good but not perfect. However, the average ebay buyer may not have noticed until he went to sell it.

The example I was looking for with the coins that matched down to toning spots was apparently reported before I routinely saved copies of what I sent to ebay. The spots were NOT identical but you could clearly see they were intentionally added.

There can be fakes on any coin. I picked up this 1922 Peace sometime in the long past on ebay. After a while I was looking through my hoard and found I had bought a fake. It sticks to my magnets just fine. So just about any coin could be a phoney, in my opinion.

China would be the source and counterfeit coins are just a small part of "poor quality" items.

Westcoin - your comment about many Chinese fakes getting slabbed by major graders scares me...

If the Chinese are sufficiently clever to create fakes good enough to fool top notch professionals with an entire battery of tests, equipment and knowledge at their disposal, what chance do we have?

...and worse, if I submit a coin to them, the value of having it graded is in serious jeopardy is it not?

I am a collector, not an investor, but in many cases it makes sense to purchase TPG certified coins.

Such as commonly counterfeited key dates, like the 1877 IHC or the 1916-D Mercury. Buying such key coins uncertified means you have unwavering faith in your own ability to detect the authentic from the fake.

In many cases it costs no more for a certified coin as opposed to a raw coin. Search in almost any denomination for closed sales on ebay and you will find examples of raw coins selling for equal or even greater money than high grade TPG coins of the same date and mint mark.

Last, we are only custodians of the coins we collect. Someday all of them will find new homes. Selling PCGS and NGC coins as opposed to raw coins that are every bit as beautiful will very often prove the point of the certified coins being much easier to sell.