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 Replies: 17 / Views: 4,204 |
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Valued Member
294 Posts |
I was looking for a 2 mark coin to add to my collection when I chanced upon this. I thought i'd take a shot at the then reasonably low bidding price, but I thought i'd check for references to fake PCGS slabs and from one resource that I managed to study in the last 8 minutes I decided it was really a fake slab, but I don't know. Am I right in my conviction? Or have I missed out on a great opportunity?   By the way, if anybody feels they recognize which seller/dealer these pictures might belong to, i'd just like to say that I'm not insinuating anything negative about him/her, it's just that as it is known, those fake slabs are really getting so good as to trick even long-time dealers, so naturally i'd like to take precautions and learn to avoid furthering the cause of those counterfeiters'. Incidentally, I was also looking at another 2 mark coin, and apart from being in a reasonably good condition, I noticed a disparity in the 'E' in the word "ZWEI". It isn't straight like the pictures provided on ngccoin's guide, so perhaps I've managed to dodge another fake? What do you guys think? |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
7096 Posts |
It checks out as being the same grade with a population of 1 on the PCGS site. However there is NO photo to compare the coin with  |
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Valued Member
 294 Posts |
I'm sorry, so you're saying that PCGS reports only having ever graded one 1901a 2 mark coin in VF35? I'm not sure I understand because I haven't referred to anything PCGS related thus far. That'd be great knowing that I managed to come across the one and only PCGS graded 1901a 2 mark coin.... and having passed on it! lol
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
I don't see anything about the slab which really alarms me, and it seems a pretty odd issue/grade to counterfeit.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
7096 Posts |
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Valued Member
294 Posts |
yeah I know it is but it wasn't the coin, rather the slab. after all it did resemble a picture example of a fake I found on about.com
thanks trout1105, i'll be sure to use it from now on. now I know how I just missed out on a $150 category coin! the bidder sure got lucky winning it for $52, that was just below what I was about to bid for it... hopefully there'll be another time
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5825 Posts |
One of the earlier diagnostics of Chinese fake PCGS slabs was that it wouldn't "nest" with real PCGS slabs.
The caveat here is that the Chinese may have since corrected that flaw.
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Valued Member
294 Posts |
Doesn't this make you prefer to buy raw coins instead lol apart from verifying the serial number, are there any better and surefire ways to recognize immediately one of those high quality fakes that have been proven already? reading about people being fooled into wasting thousands sure isn't my cup of tea...
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Valued Member
United States
365 Posts |
Is this a high-enough value piece to actually first counterfeit, and then produce a counterfeit slab for? Wouldn't that be more likely for something higher grade and rarer?
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Valued Member
294 Posts |
well it does score a respectable $160 at VF20 alone, according to ngccoin's price guide. Maybe it isn't the most up to date or perhaps that only reflects the price we can expect to pay a dealer for, I don't know. but at least for me that is a lot of money and a potential target for counterfeiters. I haven't been able to find any references online however, which point to fakes or restrikes of these coins but I thought I saw traces of them just recently.
I saw a potential fake 3 mark coin, not of particularly rare date or mintmark, at a local shop that had trays full of well-worn coins, among them a US dollar from 1798, and although I'm not sure what it should measure, I'm pretty convinced that no such rarities would show up amongst other obviously fake coins. Wouldn't know what's going on in the counterfeiting syndicates...
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
I'm really getting worried about the many fake slabs appearing lately. At a coin show not long ago I was told by a dealer that he almost bought a slabbed coin but found out it was a fake. He returned it to the seller. He and other dealers have told me they see more and more faked slabs all the time now. And not just PCGS but many others too. Fake coins and now fake slabs.
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Valued Member
294 Posts |
Did the dealer say how he discovered it was a fake? surely those counterfeiters wouldn't be searching through records on PCGS or other websites and duplicating their serial numbers as well? if they really do that then that's definitely not good
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1511 Posts |
They absolutely duplicate the serial numbers... It'd be pretty easy to figure out there fake if they didn't.
I mean these counterfeiters arnt dumb, they make a living off of this. It's not some person making slabs in their basement, it's a huge factory operation. You bet they look up the numbers and copy them. Unfortunately..
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Valued Member
294 Posts |
ok.... now that is something to talk about, and a whole lot at that. I'm still pretty convinced it was a fake slab I was looking at, by reason of the little details especially the color of the hologram sticker. Raw coins from now on it is for me then!
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
The hologram looks fine to me, looks just like the ones I have that I know are real. Nothings really jumping out on that.
Raw coins arent going to solve the fake coin problem, it will exacerbate it if anything. There are fake slabs out there but theres far more fake coins than fake slabs.
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Valued Member
294 Posts |
Strange, I guess the source I read was wrong about it then, or I might have misread it in the mad rush. Yeah I guess so, I suppose I was looking at the situation in terms of cost. I believe slabbed coins convince people to pay more or closer to catalogue value?
Are there any sources that list all coins that have been counterfeited before by the way? I've found a few but not very concise ones
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Replies: 17 / Views: 4,204 |
Posted 09/14/2013 11:58 pm
