Rant Warning!I appreciate the fact that the big grading companies are in fact for-profit businesses. I understand that they want to grade anything and everything.
But this, this is plain old over the line.
To start, I'm an Italian coin collector, have been doing so more than half of my life now. Each country has it's omnipresent fake, that one pseudo-coin that never existed, but that somehow, someone decided was worth copying and distributing. In the Usa, it's the "Indian head dollar" or similar pieces. Well for Italians, it's a medal, sporting the reverse of the 1927-8 20 lira coin, and on the obverse instead of VEIII's bust, a helmeted bust of Mussolini surrounded by the Roman numerals MCMXLIII. The coin is a joke, made in the 70's by pro-fascist groups in northern Italy.
Well, Krause, and NGC put the dunce cap on, and pulled it over their own eyes. Krause catalogued it with an X number, fair enough, that's a legitimate place for it, like other fantasy tokens.
NGC though, certified one. And oh did they goof. here it is in short:
The slab is misleading, to an unknowledgeable collector, the reference to Italy and the supposed face value along with a date would immediately suggest this to be a pattern, or real coin of some type.
If this wasn't enough, the cherry to top it off is that NGC census has it listed with all the legitimate coins of VEIII's reign!
https://www.NGCcoin.com/details-cen...0l/?c=243054Sadly, this is being taken advantage of at this very moment by what I can only describe as a rather unscrupulous
ebay seller who has listed this certified piece for an astounding 4000 dollars, a price only supported by the NGC grading, which in fact he clearly states, adding that "it is amongst the rarest issues of the kingdom of Italy" when similar fantasy issues, which are still being made in China I should add, sell for less than a dollar a piece across the internet.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1943-Dated...323623729339I have written to NGC, but am afraid I shouldn't be expecting a reply...
Thoughts?