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This is no joke, with the flood of fake coins of every type and grade we are in a crisis. I don’t think any of the collecting societies have hit this one hard enough or put enough emphasis on the problem. To make matters worse, it doesn’t seem to even make a blip on the radar of our government. I guess when your approval rating is the lowest ever and with: economy, war and terrorism on your plate I guess the preservation of the integrity of your history is not really that important. I may sound a little cynical but with laws already in place to prevent the corruption of our history, no one seems to be actively enforcing the law.

With bush’s free trade deals with other countries we have seen children’s toys come over with lead paint, melamine-tainted food to boost the protein content, and fake coins coming from china, is this how Bush’s free trade deal with china is supposed to work? – And at the end of his term in office he wants’ another free trade deal with Columbia, I guess that means that we can get cocaine a cheaper price than before. Sorry for the rant, but I blame most of the current problems on an administration that doesn’t seem to care.

Back to the real problem we are facing. What can we do to prevent this tragedy? first off I think that it is too late to make a real impact. I believe that the majority of these fakes are getting through e-bay. We can do small things especially when buying coins from e-bay if the location is China, simply don’t bid. That will hopefully be one less fake coin getting into our hobby. Contact e-bay if you see a suspicious coin.

Don’t rely on the grading companies to get it right. They even admit that a fake can get past them. No one really knows how many fakes are in slabs, simply because no one knows they are fakes. I have seen these Chinese fakes and they are extremely good, they fake every coin from a bust dime to a standing liberty quarter, to a Jefferson nickel, ancients, and pillar dollars. No specific dates or types that can be ruled out. If china can make a buck, they will In any grade. That low grade 1916 d merc dime ag or g condition is not immune. Look for low grade coins being faked. They will use the correct metal content as well. One examiner said that the only way you can tell with some of these fakes is with a spectrum analyzer to detect trace elements, Chinese silver has different trace elements than the authentic us coin. But who has the means to do this kind of test on their coins.

I am looking forward to your responses, Question: What can we do to protect our hobby? – Please reply.

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