Can You Counterfeit Annual US Mint Proof Sets?

wouldn't the coins have the "S" mint mark showing that they are proofs?

And if it did happen and you bought it on ebay, I'm not sure if you could return them, since the dealer can deny it and say you swapped the coins instead. I don't know who ebay would believe and support, but most likely it would be the seller.

There is no need to glue it; doing so would actually be a sign of tampering. Proof sets have not been sealed for more than ten years now, and before then they were only sealed together in spots.

, replytodh!

On many sets, there isn't any "sealed", you could switch coins easily.

I'm not saying it will never happen--some people will scam any way they can--but it's not real likely. Dealers rarely do anything but spot check proof sets.

Many sets carry little premium over silver content, so there's little or no profit to be made switching.

I have never had any problem opening any US Mint product. I do not think they actually seal any holders they have their coins in any more, or at least I haven't came across any that have been sealed

Buyer beware..... I also believe the buyer would receive the benefit of any doubt.....( under normal circumstances)..

It has been done for some time or at least a variation of it.

It really started back in 1999 when they stopped sealing the proof sets. For awhile on ebay there was a big market in "error" proof sets that were missing one of the State Quarters and had two of one of the others. The scammers would buy five normal sets, open them, swap the quarters around and sell the "error" sets for $300 to $400 apiece.

Then in 2000 some special "VIP" 10 coin 1999 proof sets began hitting the market. The 1999 sets were nine coin sets because the SBA came out late in the year and wasn't included in the set. The sellers were promoting these sets as special sets made up for some VIP's and they were very rare. The scammers were opening up a 10 coin 2000 proof set and replacing the coins with 1999 coins and the 1999 SBA. Then putting them in a 1999 box. These sets were bringing as much as $1500. If you knew your proof sets you knew what was going on because they changed the color of the insert between the 1999 and 2000 sets.

Then the price of the 1999 silver proof sets went through the roof scammers opened them up slabbed the silver coins and sold the slabbed silver set, then refilled the set with clads and put them back in the silver proof set box and sold them on ebay.

I have also seen 1990 prestige proof sets that have been opened and the proof cent replaced with a nice BU Philadelphia coin, reassembled and sold as the rare 1990 missing S set. They liked using the Prestige set because the outer holder hid the signs of tampering on the proof set holder inside. These would bring a couple grand.