Inside A Chinese Coin Counterfeiting Ring

Thanks for this !
An eye opener indeed!
The sad thing is .......... there is a market !
Not to get political, I refuse to shop at places where
everything seems to be made in China and try to find
an alternative . It is very difficult on some things!

We're on the verge of seeing the most difficult-to-detect counterfeits yet. The combination of 3D printing, quality reducing lathes in the hands of counterfeiters, and laser cutting is already here. Buckle the seatbelts. This will be the hobby's biggest challenge.

The crude first generation counterfeits are becoming a thing of the past. Sand casting, electrotypes, and plating shell casts are old school and usually easily identifiable.

The second generation transfer-die-struck counterfeits are still the norm. They are typically easily identifiable, especially with muled varieties and more variety collectors.

The third generation of die struck counterfeits is tougher, with laser cut master dies and techniques to obscure the counterfeit's surface. Couple these with fake slabs, and that's the issue we are seeing now.

What is becoming more concerning is the use of standard minting equipment, such as reducing lathes, high pressure coining presses, and collars. Couple that with 3D images and 3D printing, and we're in a new world.

Don't rule out hand cut dies, either. Most of them are comical, but at least two classes of hand cut die counterfeits are brutal. The "Omega" counterfeits and the Arab US gold counterfeits from the 1960s-1970s are exceptional. Significantly, they used proper alloy planchets.

Useful reading but that scares the heck out of me , I'm sure others will agree .

Good point but, 1-we are up against literally Thousands of fakes 2- I am thinking even if this gadget was or is to be invented, an collectors and coin hobby enthusiasts will not be able to afford it unless it is fee sable for average Joe to purchase.
fortcollins has some valid points and sadly enough these people and their techniques are becoming ever so advanced and sophisticated.

Truly. and they are not limiting to just the US coinage,it's a worldwide issue.

Yes, you are correct, it has and there are still those who have not seen those topics or read the article in dept.with this alarming issue if a few see it for the first time and are made aware like those above, then I'd think it was worth re-hashing this subject, the same could be said about educating members who are regularly/daily trying to learn MD,DDD, versus DD, this is a kind of hubby we've chosen and you can never learn enough

Thank you as well for all your hard work.

I agree. I would say if you were to re-visit the same store, they probably have increased their fake coins inventory tenfold