Fake edge lettering is very common. I have a beautiful 1795 US dollar struck from good dies with perfect edge lettering except for the fact the coin edge reads BACKWARDS. "RALLOD ENO" etc - all the way around. I guess the forger forgot that English is read left to right not right to left. The error has since been corrected. Only the first issue of fakes had the reversed rim.
As a member of the Counterfeit Committee I can confirm that the seller MUST refund your money plus the shipping cost you paid AND the return postage for sending the coin back to him if he wants it back. A lot of sellers in this case just say keep the darned thing - especially if the know they were scammed from several different buyers.
Counterfeit sales are fraud and the buyer must be made whole.
I just had that kind of case come up Friday with 4 different sales of fake silver bars and rounds. Seller got scammed and had to refund all costs but said to each buyer just destroy the junk. The complaint was from the seller who thought the buyer should pay for the return. The answer was NO if you want it back you have to pay for the return.
If the seller fights this kind of a case it can result in a permanent suspension. Which happened twice just last week in cases I worked on personally. (Not the case above because the seller relented.) I have no idea how many permanent suspensions occur but I do not see all TPR's either.
Once you get a look from inside of the operation -
ebay seems a lot fairer than it did from the outside looking in. Just over worked. Proof has to be absolute - but they do act fast on fraud. The number of actual employees is very small. They rely on unpaid volunteers. But you have to be nominated for a position on a panel you can not just apply.
We even have one board member who does Crack out checks for high end
US coins that reappear on
ebay after coming out of slabs that had indicated problems. That must be a job that really drives you nuts locating the exact coins even after they have been photo shopped to remove scratches.
But an original
TPG graded coin slabbed by one of the big three that is photo-shopped to eliminate a scratch is actually a crime if it is resold. These can be referred for prosecution if substantial enough.
Posted 03/09/2013 11:20 pm
