Counterfeit PCGS Holder [2] Slabbed 1849 $1 Gold Same Serial Numbers

After further review: Possibly broke the slab and had it re-slabbed. Looks cracked top right.

But then to make matters a little more complicated.
Seller dathamobile0 item 331857216984

http://www.ebay.com/sch/dathamoble0/m.html

Sold the exact same serialized coin and used a stolen PCGS MS 69 picture. Serial # 19423463 is in item specifics.

The TPGrading industry need to lift their game, very soon, to raise security of their product.

Otherwise, no potential buyer on ebay will know for sure if a slabbed coin is fake or not.

@Goldflake, I think a call to PCGS is in order.

Plastic guy here.

There is nothing that PCGS can do that I can't fake technically.

What PCGS needs to do is make it more difficult.

First step is pictures.

All coins should be imaged online so you can compare in hand to the images of the graded coin to see that it is the same coin in fact. Call it the Full Employment for Macrophotographers Act and you have yourself a jobs bill that even this Congress could agree on. . . .

When I have warranty concerns in a commodity product I am writing a formula for, I always have concerns about eating our competitors returns. To avoid this cost I generally add some sort of nonsense chemical marker to the formula. Something I can detect that no reasonable competitor would put in their formula as it doesn't modify the properties significantly and does add cost. The chemical cost and testing costs end up outweighing the false warranty costs in the end I figure.

This manufacturer (or jobber out of manufacturing more likely) needs something more than catching the fake after the fact, they need to make it easier for their end users to catch fakes.

I'd probably make them amp up their tech game and make it more expensive to fake.

Perhaps some sort of in mold decoration like a PCGS branded border or the like. Melt that into the plastic part. That isn't easy to do and will be a burden the counterfeiter will have to bear.

They make laser marking pigments now too. When melted they'd be clear, but if you hit the part with a laser it will color it after the fact. You can use this to label parts after manufacture. Maybe add this hurdle too.

In the end, if there is enough money there, someone will tool up and make the part. If you just want lowest cost though, continue buying them that way. If you want to solve this problem, find a competent American custom molding firm. They exist in the market because they provide unique and valuable services. PCGS seems like they need to pay for these American services to protect their brand more so than reduce cost on plastic, but I could be a bit biased here too . . . .

NGC did that, PCGS has not.



Supposedly PCGS has done that, but you have to have the slab in hand and their $300 detector to confirm it. As far as I know NGC has not done this and it will not help when buying from images in a catalog or on line. And once the counterfeiter figures out what you have added to the mix that your detecting device is registering, your device is no longer useful because they can add it to theirs.

Anything that can be seen, especially in images can be faked. If you add something detectable to the plastic mix, if you announce it and don't keep it a trade secret, it can probably be copied too, and if kept secret it is also not something the consumer can use to protect themselves.



The fade label has been around for several years, the shield on the label is only something you get if you pay the extra for the Secure Shield tier. Both the solid blue and the "foose fade" labels can be found with and without the shield.

The 'foose fade" label comes with three different reverse labels, the images from the auction closing next month is the latest reverse label. The first reverse used on the "foose fade" labels is the same as the reverse label seen on the auction that ended earlier this month.

NGC has only been imaging for seven or eight years. Any slabs older than that will not have images.

with Conder.

A bit late to the party here, but I recently bought a
PCGS coin that had TrueView images, and PCGS allowed me to download them. Makes it easy to steal images. ANACS only allows the coin owner to download the images. Not sure about NGC.