TPG's Grading Fake Coins

I read about that, too. Unfortunately, PCGS would not discuss the coin with EAC members because they didn't have the coin in-hand. The possibility that it is an unknown die marriage was discussed, but it is more likely that it is fake. Since I don't think the coin went to an EAC member, I don't know if we will ever clear up this mystery.

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I have a contemporary counterfeit 3CS that I asked J.P. Morgan (of ICG) if they'd slab it for me and he said no.

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J,P. Martin. J.P. Morgan was the financier who injected capital during the Panic of 1893 to avoid utter meltdown. Or the woman who was a regular on the Gong Show.

The altered date 1804 was an 1803 S-260 not an 1801. Here are the photos from the auction. Easiest way to spot that it is a fake is to look at the position of the berry to the right of the E in ONE, and the position of the gap between the ends of the wreath to the ES is STATES.


And genuine from Coinfacts


PCGS has since said that they contacted the buyer and they did make arrangements to buy back the coin, and have taken it off the market.

Great info Condor! That's why I love browsing through these topics. Thanks! :)

The micro O dollars were probably made arond the turn of the 20th century and surprisingly were actually recognized as counterfeits at the time. Back when PCGS was coming to their decision that they were fake, a turn of the century newspaper article was turned up that discussed recently appearing counterfeit dollars that had a "lowercase O for the mintmark".

One thing that most everyone seems to forget with the slabbed Micro O dollars. The obverse dies for these coins were most likely not just paired with the Micro O reverse, and in at least one case we know this is true. The question is, how many counterfeits using those obverses paired with something other than the Micro O rev are out there in slabs?

Another thing, the grading services gave out numbers of how many of the fake Micro O's they had slabbed, but they only started identifying that variety in 1998. Any slabbed before that time would have just been listed as regular O mint coins and they would have no way to track how many of them they really slabbed. Some of them may still be out there unrecognized in older slabs. (The number is probably small though since the Micro O dollars were considered to be rare VAMs and many of them were probably resubmitted once the services began recognizing the variety on the label.

Here is a thought. How would anyone know if a fake coin was in a fake slab? I think I've heard that China is now making fake, counterfeit slabs for their counterfeit coins. So if you get a PCGS slab, how would you know it is not a fake slab and coin? Of course things like PCGS would probably be written wrong or mispelled.

I haven't seen a fake PCGS slab yet, but if you search for Trade dollars on ebay you can find them in fake ANACS slabs. It's obvious that they're fake, because a lot of counterfit stuff from China is nowhere close to looking like the real thing. But, how would this prevent someone from the US doing this, making them look right?


You couldn't prevent that anymore than preventing counterfeiting our currency. Crooks have counterfeited just about everything possible here anyway. At least our crooks have higher standards than in China. Making an item one at a time is not the American criminal way. From China I've seen just about anything imaginable. Usually speeled a little different. Such as Dinocell, Duroncell, etc for batteries. My latest favorite was at a flea market where a guy was selling ORIGINAL BLACK FOREST HUNTING KNIVES. Famous German knives for those that don't know. On the blade was clearly engraved MADE IN CHINA.