Counterfeit Error Coins: Warning

This was sent by Fred Weinberg to the Error Coin Information Exchange mailing list. Posting with permission.

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For the first time since the late 1960's, a group of counterfeit error coins has appeared on the market.

I ask that all ECIE [Error Coin Information Exchange] members take this very seriously, and understand that what I'm stating here is true, but due to certain situations, not complete.

You'll have many questions, and some I can answer, and some I can't.

On ebay, the seller " National1966 ", based in Florida, is selling both Certified and uncertified major error coins that are counterfeits.

This seller, who goes by the name of Charles Silverstone, and/or Mike McCoy (among other names, apparently from St. Petersburg and Clearwater Florida), is the source of these items, produced in Europe. He has been notified by NGC that his coins are counterfeit, and he continues to sell them on ebay, and possibly through other venues, such as direct sales to collectors.

This seller has 'salted' his ebay listings with genuine certified coins, to legitimize his 'collection' or accumulation of coins, but this is purely to deceive the viewing public on his auction pages.

In the past few months, PCGS, NGC, ANACS, and ICG have certified some of his coins - not a huge amount, and we've managed to contain some of the damage, but there ARE certified error coins that he's selling that are Counterfeit.

This seller might also be the source of other counterfeit coins, that are not errors.

I encourage anyone who has purchased coins through this seller on ebay, and has paid through PayPal, to contact PayPal for a full refund. (I'm not sure of the exact procedure, or the time limit).

Anyone who has purchased raw or certified error coins from this seller, but paid for them outside of eBay/PayPal, should contact the seller immediately and demand a refund.

As far as PCGS's policy - I have talked directly with David Hall, and he encourages anyone who has ended up with such an error coin in a PCGS holder, to resubmit the coin, with any appropriate paperwork/invoices, to PCGS under their "Guaranteed Resubmission" tier. These transactions will be runback to the original seller, if possible.

Contact NGG for their policy - they have taken a very agressive posture with these counterfeits, and this seller.

I've also talked extensively with ANACS, and they encourage the same - send it back to ANACS with paperwork, and ANACS will apply their policy to these coins.

I also want to say that this new group of counterfeits are very impressive, and have, until very recently, fooled over 10 top authenticators from all four services, including myself.

They are excellent fakes, and it took us months to determine what was going on with them.

We now want to stop this seller from continuing his methods of selling these items, and to face other actions as warranted.

There will be more information given, as is possible to release.

Fred Weinberg
PCGS Consultant
for Mint Error coins