TPGs And Chinese Counterfeit Slabs/Coins, Solution...

soon?

The only thing I can think of would be to start a service where if a slabbed coin is sold it is sent from the current owner back to the grading comany for verification, then they send it to the buyer.

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The only thing I can think of would be to start a service where if a slabbed coin is sold it is sent from the current owner back to the grading comany for verification, then they send it to the buyer.

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That would go over well, in effect having the coin "regraded" (and the added cost) every time it's sold.

Newbie here... so be easy on me!

Wouldn't the existing serial numbers be good enough
to cross reference with the grader?

Do any of the 'real' graders have that option available?

I like Bryan's escrow idea, especially if it's handled by the originating TPG. That way they claim ownership for this problem (as well as solution)

So what the hey, I'll post this again. I only spent a few hours thinking about this, so it's bound to have holes--don't pick it apart too finely, lol.

Here's an idea I kicked around a while back whereby the TPGs would issue an encrypted PIN to the collector that wouldn't be visible on the slab. That way, during some part of the transaction, the owner could provide the PIN to the buyer for final verification against a secure TPG database. No doubt there are holes in this process, but this is just a rough idea I put together.

A while back, I drew up a hypothetical system using an escrow intermediary. Of course, that step is likely too involved for the average internet auction and would needlessly add to cost. The remote verification process would add setup and procedural overhead--but how much is protecting your product worth?

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A while back, I drew up a hypothetical system using an escrow intermediary. Of course, that step is likely too involved for the average internet auction and would needlessly add to cost. The remote verification process would add setup and procedural overhead--but how much is protecting your product worth?

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And I pointed out two flaws in the system One where the owner loses the PIN or dies and no one knows the PIN so they all have to be regraded or sold for pennies on the dollar. Or as a counterfeiter I buy a genuine coin to get the PIN then make a few dozen fakes with the same and give the proper PIN to each person I sell one to. Wen they question the database the PIN they get back will be the same as the one I provided. Everything confirms, but the coin and slab are still fake. Once I get the PIN I can even sell the genuine one. And the PIN will continue to work for those fakes until one of the gets resubmitted. Then the PIN gets canceled, which kills it for the real coin as well.

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"where the owner loses the PIN or dies and no one knows the PIN so they all have to be regraded or sold for pennies on the dollar. Or as a counterfeiter I buy a genuine coin to get the PIN then make a few dozen fakes with the same and give the proper PIN to each person I sell one to."

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Well, you make an excellent point--why complicate a slabbing process to the degree that its value depends on one critical detail, such as a PIN? This is yet one more step removed from the actual coin--one which can also be duplicated or hacked. Complicating the process further does not help at venues like coin shows, where details such as PINs cannot be verified easily.

Perhaps there's a systemic problem at work here, since no slab can convey verifiable details on the order of the coin it holds? Despite what one TPG has suggested, it's rather preposterous to assume collectors should judge authenticity of a slab based on fonts used or minute details of a hologram. Even if a TPG created a encapsulated label as complex as banknote, collectors and dealers would still need to know what to look for. To be a savvy collector, one would need to be an expert in verifying both coin and slab. This is simply too much to expect from anyone! I can't think of how to fix this problem.