I Got Fooled

Albert You fell into a well disguised trap.

It is a variation of a con that you can observe first hand at almost every port of call made in third world countries. A small kid, dirty face, poorly dressed comes up to an obvious group of strangers (rich visitors - also known as marks) asking them to buy what looks like a silver dollar sized coin or an ancient artifact. The item will be covered in dirt but enough will show to tell it is an 8R or a Morgan dollar. The con-man (kid) usually says he found it while he was digging in the dirt - etc. Then he asks if you would like to buy it from him for a dollar. His asking price is always very low. So low that I have actually seen people pay several times the original asking price.

It is human nature to hunt for bargains but this con works because it draws on a different basic instinct. Greed. The willingness of most people to take advantage of others mistakes is why this works.

A cashier returns too much change. I am one of the guys who will go back and return it.

Typically the mark will fork over the $1 thinking "boy did I just make money". When he actually looks at what he bought and cleans away the dirt he finds it is a cheap forgery that cost 10 cents it is not a $12 hunk of silver. By then the ship has left port.

On one cruise we went with another couple to Panama. There the con involved a dog hand carved from a single piece of bone. The seller was an old time-worn man who was working on what appeared to be another animal (but in the very early stages and rather crude). He was cutting with a jackknife. I watched from a distance as the old man sold his dog. Then I hung around and watched as the guy pull out another dog a few minutes later.

When we were at sea I found out that the other man in our foursome had actually bought one of the dogs. He was ecstatic. He mused about how many hours it must have taken the old guy to finish the dog with his little knife. I looked at the dog politely and I discovered it was in fact hand carved. The old man had carved off the seam that ran around the entire dog. The dog was a cast copy actually made of plastic. I never told the guy. The dog stayed on his shelf for years until his kid accidentally knocked it onto a stone hearth and it shattered.

I have been on 12 cruises to 22 different Caribbean locations most of which qualify as third world. On days when my wife is off shopping (which I hate - shopping not my wife), I look for these kids and old men and watch how the con develops. In several cases, I have seen the handlers and on Barbados I actually watched for a couple hours while one kid sold the same trinket 50 times. He had a handler - a teen ager who collected the cash and gave the kid a few more copies. I watched the teenager until he entered a church yard where he met a two men who were about 35 or 40. They collected the money from that teen and at minimum 5 others who came in one at a time.

On ebay NEVER assume that you have spotted a rarity that the seller is unaware of. I know it can happen - I actually found one once. But in that case, like I usually do, I contacted the seller, advised her of the mistake she had made and coached her on how to post and describe the coins properly.

I learned from my grandfather that by attempting to profit from another persons ignorance - you usually are harmed more than the person you took advantage of.

In this case the seller offered a refund after a return. I declined because this was a perfect case for me to add a coin to my books where I was in fact fooled. I told the seller I won't return it and that I intend to add it to the book. Along with including the name of the seller as well as the well known and reputable on-line website. It didn't bother me enough to return it. It was worth it to me to add it to my book on counterfeits. It did surprise me to learn this reputable dealer described it as silver when in fact it was not.

Both are fantasy nonsense. This is a genuine example to compare to



In this case, both should be very obvious - there was never a variety with flowers.

I thought I was lucky enough to be buying a genuine Bruce X#1300 in silver because of the dealers reputation and description. Didn't turn out to be true. But you know what? It also happens that another dealer gave me a couple "junk" Chinese dollars because "he doesn't mess with them". Both turned out to be genuine and I value them at about $100 each more or less. So I came out ahead over all.

Pertinax I agree with you completely that we ALL get fooled sometimes. Oddly enough the first instance I recall was also buying an MTT for $3 when I was a kid. I was about 7 and did not know there were counterfeits (or deceitful coin dealers) when I bought my example.

In more recent years I have been fooled a few times on ebay when what I thought was a counterfeit turned out to be genuine but altered coin.

Twice I have purchased coins with altered mint marks - in both cases the coins had Lima mint marks that had been converted to Mexico City. I had concluded incorrectly that since the assayer initials did not match the mint mark they were counterfeit. Of course when I received them I was actually happier about what they were. They were genuine coins altered for the China trade.

The strangest case of this type was a coin that was advertised on ebay as a cast counterfeit. It had a surface that looked like a simple sand casting of a second republic 8 reales. Immediately I thought Sinaloa even though it was not filed to adjust the final weight as most of the Sinaloa casts were.

When the coin arrived, I discovered it was a genuine coin that had been covered in a tar like substance - rolled in sand - baked to make the adhesive harden - and then spray painted silver.

Did I return this and ask for a refund - NO. If I get fooled I normally eat the cost and chalk it up to experience.

That happened ONE TIME. A seller advertised a replica of an 8 reales in a plastic capsule on a keychain. Selling counterfeits this way are perfectly fine on ebay because there is a jewelry exception for counterfeit and replica coins. The coin itself had a very strange appearance that looked like a mold was made out of clay. I presumed it would be a non-metal (plastic) cast of a coin. Extremely blunted impression. When it arrived it was actually an aluminum foil impression of both sides of a coin fitted into a cheap plastic capsule. Not worth the postage I paid. So I wrote to the seller who decided to argue with me and insist it was correctly described. That is the only reason I requested and got a refund.

It was not the money it was the principle.