Last Hole Filled In LWC's!

Mr.Frog: Those were to designate a Key Date and Semi-Key date when I first started. This was the first album ever purchased, was a partial from my local LCS in 2014 before I figured out how I wanted to set up my series of coins. I have some clean pages I'll be replacing and labeling as a future project...those old pages have seen their better day!

In as respectful manner as I can, I too must be negative in my response to the original post.

Selling fake coins not conspicuously marked "COPY" in the U.S. is in violation of the Hobby Protection Act. Purchasing such coins with full knowledge of the fakery is really bad for the hobby.

Your deriding "PC Numismatic Police" comment and the "# Sand" image seem to indicate you really don't grasp the scope of the counterfeit problem in the numismatic hobby. Our Hobby.

I know you just wanted a hole-filler. Something you and others may think it innocent enough, and apparently funny, but in all seriousness, these Chinese knock-offs are destroying our hobby!

Sure, your fake Lincoln will sit quietly in your coin album for you to admire (for what reason I cannot fathom) until you are old and grey. At some point, your heirs will inherit your coins. They will have no idea that the 1909 S-VDB is a fake and, quite innocently, sell the collection to some unsuspecting individual who will likely suffer a financial loss. The cycle is vicious and repeats with every generation. Any one of us who has been collecting for more than thirty years has seen this happen again and again. So sad.

Moreover, too many new (and young) numismatic collectors are being sold these counterfeits at inflated prices by unscrupulous individuals who buy these "hole fillers" by the hundreds or thousands with the sole criminal intent to resell the fakes to defraud as many collectors as they can. The purchasers unknowingly suffer an immediate financial loss, and when they learn of the fakery they feel violated and lose all trust in sellers. Many stop collecting entirely. I have seen this happen.

So if you truly want to contribute to this hobby so it may grow and flourish for generations to come, you should take that "thing" out of your album and smash it with a hammer, or stamp the word "COPY" on it, or otherwise clearly identify it as counterfeit so there will be no mistaking it as genuine by a novice collector. Maybe use it as a teaching tool?

But you won't, will you? That "coin" just looks too good in that spot that would otherwise be empty.

Your opinion regarding counterfeits will gradually change to be similar to mine once you have unknowingly acquired some counterfeits and later discover your mistakes--sometimes at a hefty cost.

Are you too smart and knowledgeable to be fooled by a fake coin? Maybe. But so is every coin dealer--and each of them will have plenty of non-sellable "examples" to show you, proving even the best in the business get fooled.

The TPGs have even been fooled with modern counterfeits--many of which were originally purchased as "hole fillers".

Now where's the smilie for symbolizing getting on and off one's soapbox?

I'll step off mine now.

I appreciate your sentiments, OldMoney, but I don't think you know Crazyb0 very well.

Aside that, there are many seasoned collectors/members here who have "black collections". As sel pointed out, they can be educational tools for learning what to look for in counterfeits. We all know that having a coin in hand is better than pics. The same goes for examining a fake.

I don't think the hobby is being destroyed by the influx of counterfeits. It may be making it more challenging, but that makes me more interested. To me, it makes the hobby more dynamic. I don't think it turns away novice collectors, because the fakes are generally of high $ coins, and most newbies don't jump into that immediately.

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Disagree. There have been counterfeit coins as long as coins have been made. Our hobby is still here, and I think it's much healtheir than some of the older generation of collectors realize. This is largely due in part to the internet.

In this day and age you can't just go by coin show attendance anymore. The e-market is much larger and far-reaching. There are TONS of collectors out there. You just don't know about them. The only reason anyone knows that I collect is because of this forum. I've only ever been to 3 or 4 small shows. My opinion? I'll take ebay any day of the week over a show. I can shop 24/7, 365 from the comfort of anywhere. Heck, I bought some coins last year while I was relaxing on the beach!

The only problem I'm having with ebay right now is that I can't seem to get good deals anymore on auction style listings. Why? Because people are BUYING. They're buying like crazy. The hobby is safe and sound.




Yep. I have several counterfeit Morgan dollars that I've studied over the years. There's nothing like having the "real" fake in-hand for learning to spot fakes. I'm at the point now where I can identify them very quickly.

Counterfeit coins are going to exist no matter what, so I might as well learn from them to protect myself and help others in identifying them.

I think that counterfeits have not destroyed the hobby at all. It's hard to win a coin at an ebay auction, because so many people bid on them. Coin collecting has not been destroyed at all by counterfeits.
Many, many collectors have black collections. I have a few fakes myself. You can't beat the experience of being able to inspect a fake coin in hand instead of looking at images.
When I need a key date for a set or album, I just save up for a key date and buy a lower-grade example. However, I respect the opinion of others who purchase replicas to fill key date holes. I seen nothing wrong with it.

Like spruett said, I don't think you know Crazyb0 well. He's not exactly a newbie to coin collecting

with OldMoney!