Newly Arrived From China "PCGS Fake?"

Hello,

If I had to grade coins for a living I'd starve.

Having said that, the obverse of the coin looks wrong. I've seen comments that it looks cleaned. I think it does not look like 900 silver.

$600 is a lot of money in China and well worth imitating. It is half a round trip ticket air fare between North America and China. I have students who save all year for such a ticket.

As I said, I am a poor grader, but this is as suspicious as any I've ever seen in a PCGS slab. I don't think that I'd gamble a $20 bill on it.

Thanks for posting that link. It should be noted that the auction "Closed 3/13/2004" so the price point is over 5 years old.

The flashy luster pictured in the Bowers and Merena is more in line with high AU silver coins. Likely dipped but still PCGS usually requires much more luster on a 58 silver than the OP coin exhibits.

I'd contact PCGS if I were you robocoin. They would be interested in your pics and would probably offer you a free review.

I sense a need...for slab authenticators, aka FPGs*
* fourth party graders

The slab is a fake. I don't like the looks of the coin either.

It is surprising how low the value can go and still be worth faking. I have an XF 1858-O half dollar in front of me in a PCGS slab. Catalog value is about $80 retail. The slab is fake and so is the coin. You have to remember that the only costly part is the slab shell, and PCGS uses the same shell for all their coins so the counterfeiter only has to cover that expense once. The hologram is slightly difficult but can be done by many printshops and once you have it copied it costs very little to have thousands of them produced. The paper and the type font aren't hard. Genuine certificate numbers can be found on-line just by looking at an auction house's archives. The coins themselves do cost some but no where near what the return is. And you sell a few of those bust dollars that cost you $20 to make for $3,000 to $5,000 each and all of you expenses have been covered. Everything from that point on is gravy.

Hi Conder,

I instinctively agree with your conclusion, but WHY are you so sure that it is fake?

there was a topic awhile back that showed the differences between the fake slabs and the real ones and even though I can't seem to find the original thread (didn't look to hard) this one has a few of the areas in question that was marked on the fake slabs so I am leaning towards this being a fake PCGS slab

There's no doubt it's fake. I've circled, in the barcode on the legitimate one, the "22" from the coin number. Look at the other one. No matter what legitmate PCGS 1893 Isabella Quarter you look at the coin number part of the barcode is the same. The one in question is wrong.

I will never, repeat, not in this life, buy anything from ebay! I have only bought one thing there, a DVD, and it did not work! I surely don't know enough about the hobby yet to even think about looking there! I would never have even suspected that slab was a fake, and to think I was considering buying top 4 TGP's at auctions! I HATE FRAUD!!

Oh well, back to my safe little coin dealer.