Chinese Connection

They are getting so good at this that I'm just waiting for our government to say they are going to outsourse the manufacturing of our coins to China. They probably would have by now except for no one wants Lead Coins.
Difficult to see the difference in many of them but now that they are putting them in a slab, even worse to see a fake.

I would never buy a rare (Chinese counterfeit) coin online anyway. I'll never buy anything at all from China online period!
I'll only buy high dollar coins in person from reputable dealers and get a guarantee it is genuine in writing.
By the looks of it, a graded coin from the top coin grading companies are not enough anymore, I need my seller to stand behind his coins.
Thanks to this forum, I might not make a mistake like so many falling for.
I think a good rule of thumb would be, make sure I read the sellers country they are shipping from, the feedback, and certainly what other coins they are selling.
Common sense would tell me that somebody from China cannot be knee deep in rare AU and BU US and World rare coins while the real ones are still difficult to find or get here at home at a quality coin shop or at a larger coin show.

IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE ... IT PROBABLY IS!

I think it would be really cool to have a database and photo gallery of what is fake.
The rip offs are doing the work of making the coins, photographing them for us, and uploading images and holders. We might as well copy them and save them on another web space and URL and re-post under a Don't buy these coins or you'll be sorry website.

Heck I think it might even be worth a forum topic category all it's own here on CCF.

Imagine what it would be like, thanks to the counterfeiters, living in China and in a position to think about selling some coins online ... nasty!

"I think it would be really cool to have a database and photo gallery of what is fake."
I think that's exactly what Mike Naber is trying to do at http://ForgeryNetwork.com but he's only one man and he has little help. Fact is, each and everyone of these Chinese counterfeits will need to be studied in detail in order to obtain diagnostics for future numismatists.
Regarding not buying from China via the web, I agree 100%. However these Chinese fakes have been eagerly purchased by many reputable(and big name) coin dealer's already, that's how good they are! A guy in Canada got busted awhile back because he sold coins to a local dealer, in fact it wasn't until the second or third transaction that the dealer's suspicion was aroused. Turns out, and you'll never believe this, the guy was importing them from a Chinese seller on ebay. Imagine that? He wasn't a collector, he just saw a easy way to make fast money. Higher grade early Canadian coins bring big bucks, because they worked. Those coins were for the most part heavily circulated. Unfortunately Canada has also been targeted by these Chinese merchants of mayhem. Just for the fun of it,I just ran a search on ebay and got 9,325 for "replica" and 4,665 under "copy". These are not all Chinese, but the majority using "replica" are, and all that use a counterstamp. Another important warning should be placed for Bullion buyer's, because a incredible selection of fake Gold has been produced already, including small ingots. ~ Jim

Only what I got off that Russian forum, "three different dates of U.S. $20 dollar St. Gaudens gold coins, the three Indian head gold coins and for a certainty, gold bars from the Credit Suisse. All of these fakes are made of watered-down gold and silver and are below official weights." As I see it, it's more than our beloved hobby at risk, it's the financial stability of the entire world....no wait, that's already shot,nevermind. ~ Jim

I've had it bookmarked for months and I did download the images just in case it disappeared.

wheezydog, you might check out Mike Naber's website http://forgerynetwork.com and help out there, God knows he needs assistants.
The coins are produced as uncirculated and some are then tumbled and chemically aged, so nobody is completely safe. Also, the newer counterfeits are made using computer scanning and engraving so that the dies can match perfactly. They are even produced using vintage coin presses so than even the strike diagnostics match period pieces. Experienced numismatists have purchased these coins as genuine when they first began entering the country. To date, the best defense is coin weight. It seems that they are having problem's purchasing high grade uniform planchets for producing this garbage. I would recommend adding a decent digital scale to your coin collecting tools in the near future, I know I'm going to. ~ Jim