China Silver Dragon Coins

aylandxxx - hello and welcome to the forum.

You have certainly picked an area of collecting that has numerous forgeries mixed in with the originals. Be careful - avoid "bargains".

I do have a few comments to follow up on what Sap has said. He is correct in saying that some counterfeits get by the TPG companies but not as many as a lot of people think, provided you stay with one of the better companies. I do have a small collection of slabbed fakes by these better companies, but for the most part those are VERY well made fakes and I have been hunting for slabbed fakes for YEARS.

In general, it is many, MANY times safer to buy an ANACS, PCGS or NGC slabbed coin as opposed to a RAW coin from a dealer unknown to you. How the guarantee works is something I do not know. You would have to check with them.

But in my opinion, you need to educate yourself so that you can spot counterfeits for yourself. If you love the Dragon Yen - study that coin until you know everything there is to know about it. Spend time looking at coins under a microscope. A 10x to 30X is the best and binocular is even better. Find a few cheap counterfeits and study them alongside the real ones. Start with the easy ones (bad copies) and gradually work your way up to the harder ones (better forgeries).

First: Weight - get an accurate scale 1/10th of a gram (Krause states weights for foreign coins in grams) - coins that are the wrong weight are usually counterfeit. Don't allow too much for wear. Wear does not remove that much silver from a dollar sized coin. A three to five percent loss of weight usually translates to a pretty worn out coin.
Second: Metal - learn how to spot silver by the ring. You can spot some fakes by feel. Zinc has a greasy feeling. Copper-nickel is darker than coin silver. Look at the way the coin tones and the color.
Third: Strike - study real coins until you can see the difference between a struck coin and a casting.
Fourth: Edge - look at the edge and study it until you can tell how it was applied. Look for split reeds on the Yen coins. Most fakes are edged with a ring die and it leaves the tops and ends of the reeds incomplete. Look for irregular spacing of the reeds - on real coins they are exactly the same. Look for an overlap in the reeds - real coins of the Dragon type NEVER have overlaps in the reeds.

Once you have mastered those 4 items - you will have essentially the same tools as the "experts". I favor becoming your own "expert". It is really not too hard. Ask questions. There is usually someone here who does.

aylandxxx - Andrea - I can try to give you some estimates based on my experience with Mexican Encapsulated coins. The TPG companies are about the same for non-US coins. ANACS will more often call a counterfeit what it is. I note that the other two companies, NGC and PCGS often return suspected counterfeits with a note calling them "cleaned". But as far as encapsulated counterfeits, I would say that you will definitely have to search through many thousands to find one bad one.

With all of the TPG companies, you will find they do much better on coins worth over $1000 when compared to coins worth $25. They spend more time examining high value pieces and very little time on cheap items. So I would be very comfortable buying a rarity. But low end stuff is slightly risky.

Regarding counterfeited slabs - I have seen very few and they are usually bad. It is not really possible to open and reclose most slabs either, so substitution is not seen.