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 Replies: 7 / Views: 1,361 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3499 Posts |
I just wanted to give everyone a heads up about this. So I was at a shopping mall today that is in the middle of the city in which I live, and I went into a store that specialized in decorative goods from Asia. On one table inside were large bowls of FAKE Chinese silver dollars that looked very real except for the fact that they were too light to the touch. I think they were some sort of cheap, nickel-like metal. There were a few bowls, each of which had a few different types of fake "silver" Yuan coins. The fact that these were on sale (though for only a couple of dollars) in a store in the middle of the US just really seemed very "shady" since they were simply marked "Chinese coins," so many non-collectors have probably bought them thinking they were real. What was worst of all was that as I pawed through the fakes in order to identify features of the coins that would indicate that they were counterfeits a guy walked up to me and said "some people buy those and sell them on ebay. I bet you can get quite a bit for those online." So this means that a lot of Chinese fakes are being sold by people within the States who know that these are fake or really don't know that they are fake but want to make a profit. Edited by Archraz
05/11/2008 8:30 pm
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Forum Dad
 United States
24154 Posts |
Call the police and tell them they are promoting the sale of them as counterfeits. I would.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
3499 Posts |
well, I'm not sure that they were really trying to sell them as counterfeits. They just coins in bowls with a price tag on the bowls. There was no claim of them being real or fake. If one were to ask one of the employees, the employees would probably claim they were copies. And the guy who walked up to me was just another customer. The coins just looked VERY real, and I did not see a counterstrike that said "copy" or anything of the sort, so it just bothered me. I just wanted everyone to know that the Chinese fakes are readily available to possibly unscrupulous people in the States.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
Quote:some people buy those and sell them on ebay. I bet you can get quite a bit for those online. I wouldn't be surprised at all. A few years back, US sellers were doing just that with "Swiss" watches on ebay. The watch source was Asia, and the US sellers would buy these for $10-20 and get a quick $200-400. The watches were close enough to fool the average consumer. I helped break the back of the Tag Heuer fakes on ebay, and based on confronting these guys, they knew exactly what they were doing. Based on the watch experience, I'll guess a following scenario applies to these coins: there's likely a US distributor who directly targets these kind of sellers on ebay, flea markets, etc. They may even provide a sales pitch for the seller--a turn-key marketing package included with the forged goods. They'll sell coins whose markers of authenticity aren't well-known, such as larger silver world coins that have popular appeal. They buy these coins for a fraction of the genuine coin value, then sell for less than BV, deceiving average Joe into thinking he got a deal. And once again, they know exactly what they're doing--imo. |
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Valued Member
United States
240 Posts |
Hey Archraz, I was in Hamilton Ontario, I stopped at a chinease store, and the lady there also was also selling counterfeit chinease coins, they were in a wicker basket on the desk, and when I asked her what the price of them are, and if she has any knowledge of the history of them, she sorta snapped at me and said "there just old chinease coins, thats all!". It seemed alittle odd because she took it as sarcasim or something when I asked about them...
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3499 Posts |
Well, I don't know if the guy who said that was aware of what the coins were. He may have just seen cheap, nice looking coins in a store and figured that they must be worth more than the price charged. I think that it is common to find cheap copies of coins in stores such as the one I was in. I was just worried that some people might not have realized that they were non-silver copies and then later tired of their coin and tried to ebay it or sell it to a dealer who doesn't know much about Chinese coins. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3499 Posts |
Dillon- yeah, it is common to see cash coins & such in stores like that, and usually the employees claim to know nothing about them or once in a while admit that they are copies. This was the first time that I ever saw that were obviously non-silver copies of silver coins. I didn't ask the employees about the coins. I just felt that it would be best to just warn people of how readily available the "copies" are.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5362 Posts |
I got 16 different Chinese counterfeits last week - none really believable, but the varieties out there are interesting. Included was a totally new (to me) version of the Fat Man dollar with odd "Tibetan" looking script replacing the Chinese characters. I am tyring to see how many versions of that one I can get.
I also love the mule fantasies you can find as well. I have several matings of coins from the 1880s with the 1960s from different countries at times a half a world away.
As long as they are cheap, I find them interesting. I also subscribe to the adage of "let the buyer beware". Greed is the motivation on both parts. The seller is committing fraud, but the buyer is trying to get a bargain from a sucker.
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Replies: 7 / Views: 1,361 |
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Posted 05/11/2008 8:07 pm
