How Do You Spot A Fake Slab?

TY mdpmedia Very interesting reading and VERY helpful!

You're right, the slab numbers match a lot the time, but the usually barcodes don't. If you compare them, you can usually see the difference between real and fake.

I'd like to get opinions on whether on not a coin slabbed and documented using 'TrueView SM' photography from PCGS has any possible security concerns:

http://www.PCGS.com/trueview/#whatistrueview

This seems to be an excellent service for visually linking on-line the cert # to the coin's photo but counterfeiters eventually seem to find ways 'beat the system'.

Could there be any downside risk (currently or potentially) from buying a PCGS-slabbed coin using this TrueView feature?

If so, try to be specific insofar as the guidelines that a reader should adhere to for detecting innovative methods that a counterfeiter could conceivably or would be operating with.

PCGS only does photos of a relatively small number of the coins they slab and have only been doing so for a fairly short time. Hence there aren't a lot of photos on their certificate verification site. NGC images every coin they grade and has done so for the past seven years or so. So there are a LOT more images on the NGC verification site. (Even so its seven years worth of graded coins out of 27 years of slabbing.)

Counterfeit slabs: I just now found one which is highly suspicious imo on ebay. It is for an 1879CC Capped XF45 Morgan. On the obverse it looked like a PCGS slab, but on the reverse the hologram label is severely degraded. Looks to be rubbed off and since PCGS has embedded their labels in the polymer for years now imho that wear should not be evident from what I've read. I then checked the PCGS cert# and it checked, as many counterfeit slabs do since they are just copied, buttt on the PCGS cert chk site I saw it last sold at auction in 2011 at a Heritage auction. Using that link I was able to go directly to a pic of the reverse and the holo label pic, what was then sold. It was the same date and grade BUTTT the reverse "embedded" hologram label was not damaged at all in that pic. I had read in a another coin pub, I think coin facts, that counterfeiters many times have degraded slab labels on the reverse side since they are surface labels. This article even had pics of the counterfeit eroding hologram labels. Anyway, since the guy wanted $1k for it I thought it best to let him know what I found, and said maybe he should double check what he is selling. His reply "mind your own business". . So BUYERS PLS beware fake slabs generate false confidence, check them before you buy. Many times on the more expensive coins. Once in a slab you can't check metal content, reeds, weight, etc very well.
Raw coins have one set of issues to watch and slabs have another, either of them will have gradeflation commonly