A Warning For New Collectors Of Counterfeit Varieties

That's the first thing that comes to mind with people willing to pay those prices. Hope not though.

Properly described or not, it's still against ebay policy to sell...

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies...rstamps.html

There is an exception for replica paper money, but NO exception for replica coins

In this case, the coins were made to appear to be worn - less detail that way. These date back to the 1960s and were originally discovered documented by Virgil Hancock in his monthly column on forgeries.

The ebay policy as written is entirely WRONG. It is short sighted and is based on a foolish use of words and concepts. Yet most collectors have bought in hook line and sinker.

I say this after working on the inside at ebay for some time. Their policy of opposing ALL counterfeits and replicas without distinction has nothing to do with protection of buyers against FRAUD.

Whenever any of us REPORTS an auction that uses a Correct description of a counterfeit we are falling into their trap. They would prefer that all items are presented as genuine or neutral to maximize their profits. If they were trying to stop fraud they would never have disbanded the Coin Watch Committee.

I am very sorry to see another HONEST seller penalized by trying to sell items that are legal in many parts of the world.

Incorrect representation (FRAUD) is far worse than selling a counterfeit that is legal to own and correctly described. All three coins here were legal to buy, possess and sell in the US as long as they were properly identified. The only crime would be improper description. All three were exempt from the Hobby Protection Act of 1973 since they predated that law by 10 or more years.

If we never see these coins properly described - Who will be able to spot them when they are NOT properly described in auctions that are actually FRAUDS.

So I will refrain from posting further comments such as this one perhaps until after the close. I was trying to warn members of this forum that these coins were going too high. I was NOT trying to get these auctions stopped NOR was I trying to sanction someone trying to be HONEST.

Robert : do you have pictures of those lots prior to removal ? (or other references)
Couldn't see the links.

That's awesome! Is this a new invention or something I've somehow missed?

BStrauss3 Why can't I have it the LEGAL way? The correct way? The way in which no fraud takes place?

The ebay rule as written is simply dead WRONG - they are prohibiting a legal type of item ONLY when it is correctly described while allowing rampant fraud in cases where the seller is a bald faced liar.

If the seller had not stated the coins were forgeries - exactly how many people would have known. I did but I have spent over 50 years learning how.




I would never sell a Contemporary Counterfeit on ebay - Stacks is a far better venue. However, I love buying counterfeits on ebay. I average 20-50 per MONTH. In the past ten years I have actually bought about 2,500 COUNTERFEIT coins on ebay intentionally.

My beef is with the ebay rules and with anyone that accepts ebay rules at face value as if ebay ever did anything that benefited the collecting community. The ebay bottom line is first and foremost; you could say it is the ONLY interest of ebay. They stopped the Coin Committee because we were removing too many FRAUDS. The sellers involed - largely the Chinese and Spanish sellers of frauds complained that we were removing too many of their sales and suspending too many IDs. The ebay bottom line lost $1,000,000 in revenue in the period from March 2013 to 2014 from the suspension of these fraudulent coins. Who did ebay side with? The organized counterfeiters and fraudsters using stolen bank accounts and multiple linked phony IDs.

That is why I never report anything but FRAUDS to ebay for termination and I suggest that everyone does the same. Nothing whatsoever was gained by stopping these three legal items. Someone reported them and that person should be ashamed.

Submitting a report on a seller who describes his items correctly so that there is NO FRAUD in the sale is really pathetic in my opinion. It is behaving like a grade school tattle-tale. Someone you want to slap up side the head.

Did the do-gooder making the report even tell the seller BEFORE reporting him/her. I DOUBT IT. There is no gotcha effect that way. Why help out someone when you can stab them in the back. I have ZERO respect for that.

Just in case you don't know, if ebay actually wanted to stop these identified items - they could do so with an internal word search BEFORE the auction was ever posted. It could be done automatically in seconds. It simply has never been done. Why? Let me guess no $$$$$$$ for ebay!

If you see an obviously cleaned coin that a seller says is pristine - REPORT IT.

If you see a formerly TPG details slabbed coin that has been broken out and posted for sale as GEM - REPORT THE FRAUD.

If you see a Numismatic Forgery made after 1973 posted with no warning and without COPY - report it.

If you see an altered coin, filled hole, chased fields, etc. posted with no warning report it.

I often reported between 100 and 200 items per day that were FRAUDS while I was on the committee.

But I guess that reporting real fraud takes too much effort to uncover and so reporting someone who is just trying to describe an item accurately is an easy target for the playground tattle-tale type. They must also like shooting fish in a barrel.

bobby131313 : thanks for the tool, it's excellent :)

PawnS You totally missed my point. Contemporary Circulating Counterfeits are nothing like Gucci bags at all which are illegal Modern Counterfeits.




Your statement is uninformed and DEAD WRONG. You need to study the actual issue and legalities involved before you draw foolish conclusions.

You have bought into the ebay position and you my friend are hurting me and all of the other collectors of counterfeit coins as historical items.

Do you report TPG encapsulated fourees? They are counterfeits.

Do you report Machin Mills half pence? They are counterfeits.

Do you report Evasion Colonials? They are Counterfeits.

Concentrate you efforts on actual fraud not - imaginary potential fraud.