Counterfeit Suggestion.

How ever passionate we are as collectors, we can not stop the counterfeit issue without the RCM doing their job, just like Nike, Apple, Cartier, who waits for their customers to fight fakes, only the RCM. The legal and political process can only be started and demanded by the copyright and patent holders.

@john100: I know you're saying that you can copy a coin straight up without needing the dies. This is possible with very expensive machinery, or you can cast it. Casts are easy to spot as fake. Dies are what make coins coins. My point here is you will make more exact copies if you copy the dies, not the coin. The closer you get to the original, the better, otherwise you're copying a copy, essentially. You want to copy the master hub, but not the master pattern or master die. You never touch the master pattern - you lock that in your vault and forget you have it.

It's easier (more accessible) to use the proper machinery to duplicate something than it is to try to re-engineer the object. It's a piece of cake if you can make your own dies from non-tangible files sent to you from halfway across the globe. If I were a counterfeiter in China, this is how I would do it - less startup time and money, the best machinery, and a direct link to your corrupted source in Canada, and no time lost designing and trial/error, just make the dies and pump out millions of slugs. You have to consider this possibility. I'm trying to think of how a criminal would do it with efficiency and accuracy.

China is all about the efficiency. If you started out a company not knowing what you're doing then you're already behind on your first day of business. Counterfeiters by definition want to work as little as possible for their money. It's much easier for them to bribe using fake or real cash to get what they want (power, tools). I hope this all sounds sane because this is a real possibility.

@Libertad. That's not actually what I was saying. I was saying that the 3D scanner could make a digital file of the coins every detail (dimensions, depth of legend, placement of letters, etc.) then that file could be used to make dies in another process (similar to the CAD files). The printer can't make the dies at this stage in technology because they only work with plastics right now...but the day will come when almost any material could be used. Right now it is possible to create the digital template for creating a die by using the scanner...When the technology is advanced...coins could be produced with extreme accuracy by just using the printer. I understand that actual dies are needed right now. Again, this is just a prediction, not a statement of what is actually happening.

In the future, nothing will be unique or scarce if it is made with common materials. Need an eyeball, no problem, let's just print one off....I digress.

I think metal 3-D printers already exist.

There was an open day at a dealer in London in June that I had intended to visit but failed to get there.

That open day was said to have metal 3-D printers on show, albeit way out of my price bracket.

I doubt they'll be as good as die struck yet, but one day, who knows.... ?

However, most of the time they only need to be good enough to fool the average person, or unwary numismatists.

I wonder how many of china's coins are counterfeit and if the Chinese government is doing anything about it. The talk on fakes has me worried. Everyday I wonder if I should collect silver coins, or stick
to low cost circulation finds. My mind is having a constant tug o war, as to which way to go. I partially collect for the beauty/art/ and history, and cannot afford to lose thousands. Currently I have a few thousand in circulation silver and Nclt coins. Some days I feel, I should sell it all, and start over with inexpensive coins. When I started collecting over a year ago coins of silver and higher priced, I never heard of counterfeit problem, except for higher end stuff.