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Replica Coins from China Pass as Real on Web Sites
 | By Richard Giedroyc, World Coin News
September 09, 2009 |
Sight unseen buying has always been a risky part of the coin business. That is a major reason why slabbing became popular. If you can't physically examine the coin you want to buy you need some assurance the coin is genuine and that the coin is properly graded.
Fortunately slabbing came along before the current popularity of the Internet. Raw or unslabbed coins are sold on the Internet, but if you watch the prices realized you'll notice such coins typically sell for lower amounts than do coins slabbed by generally accepted third party certification services, suggesting buyers are more cautious about raw coins.
So, what do you do if you buy online from Internet Web sites, then find the coins are counterfeit, or that not only the coins but the slabs the coins are encased in are counterfeits? You would think it would be easy to complain to the appropriate Web site and the Web site would in turn stop the seller from posting such spurious issues on their site. Apparently it isn't a simple thing, as one man from Canada recently learned.
Mike Marshall is a collector living in Trenton, Ontario. Marshall learned there are six companies in China that make replica coins. The Chinese replica products are produced and sold legitimately - in China. The problem manifests itself when the replicas are exported and then sold by third parties to unsuspecting collectors as being genuine. Unlike in the United States, in China there is no Hobby Protection Act requiring replicas to be clearly marked as copies. Making matters even more difficult Marshall lives in Canada, not in the United States.
According to the July 16 The Toronto Star newspaper, Marshall identified Chinese made counterfeit Canadian coins being sold as genuine coins on eBay. Marshall told the newspaper "several 'unscrupulous secondary sellers' who knowingly bought the made-in-China fakes as replicas, then offered them for resale as genuine rarities, tried to undermine his attempt to alert officials, the public and collecting world."
Without naming anyone Marshall said, "I even had someone threaten me on an eBay chat line."
Marshall got little cooperation at first in his efforts to stop the merchants from posting the counterfeit coins to the Web site. According to the newspaper article, "He first faced a wall of disinterest and dismissal from police, plus officials in Ottawa."
Marshall persisted, eventually enlisting a British Columbia police counterfeit expert as well as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Together they worked to get six companies with more than 300 auction lots listed online to be removed from eBay.
Following Marshall's success, eBay Canada marketing chief Andrea Stairs said, "This move will help prevent replica coins from entering the market and potentially being resold as originals," adding, "eBay will continue to collaborate with the RCMP to maintain a marketplace that is safe for both buyers and sellers of numismatic material."
Surrey Police Sgt. Tony Farahbakhchian worked with Marshall to get the bogus coins removed from the Web site. Farahbakhchian said, "It is a big victory. We've had the utmost co-operation from eBay."
According to Farahbakhchian the copies "fooled many unsuspecting buyers who were led to believe the coins were genuine numismatic rarities worth thousands of dollars." The RCMP is pursuing fraud charges against the companies that knowingly sold the replicas as being genuine on the Web site. Collectors should be aware the fake coins include both Canadian and Newfoundland coins ranging from copper cents to gold coinage.
Third party certification services have recently warned of blatant counterfeit coin slabs now being sold both over the counter and at Web sites.
Fake imperial Russian coins are also known to be sold as the genuine article on the internet. Russian Numismatic Association Journal Editor Robert W. Julian recently said, "Mr. Marshall has done very good work and deserves all the help and credit that he can get."
Julian continued, "With respect to Chinese fakes of Russian coins my view is that the continuing mention of these matters in the Journal [of the Russian Numismatic Society] serves to remind members of this danger and one hopes that they in turn pass the word to others."
Julian added that he believes the Internet Web sites are more interested in profits than in ferreting out people selling counterfeit coins, adding: "There is little anyone can do in the U.S. without some aid from the authorities; and I do not see the latter coming in the near future."
Fake US coins is a problem as well. AS B.J. Neff put it in an article in the Summer 2009 issue of the Florida United Numismatists publication Funtopics, "We are now accustomed to the onslaught of fake Trade dollars from China and have seen the fake encapsulated coins in the fake plastic holders, again from China, so what is next?"
Later in the same article Neff comments, "Places and people, which either wittingly or unwittingly sell or offer for sale or auction forgeries, should be fined heavily and if that entity still persists in these type of sales, then stopped from doing business."
A great idea, but as Marshall would tell you this is easier said than done.
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