Identifying Counterfeit Coins by Dave Phillips and Izabella Phillips
Since the pandemic, there has been a significant increase in fraud, malware, scams, you name it. It’s a sad thing to say that this is the world we live in now where we must always have recourses and knowledge to counteract cyber criminals.
Counterfeit coins have reached a whole new level. I’ve been a collector for quite some time and have a couple books on identifying coins, rating them, and spotting counterfeits. The Liberty Silver Dollar is the most commonly counterfeit coin. I ran into one a couple years ago and was able to quickly identify it wasn’t real. I recently had my collection evaluated and shockingly found out several of my Liberty Silver Dollars weren’t real.
All the coins passed the tests I knew about like magnetism, sheen and common strike discrepancies, but failed the scan with an XRF gun. They’re apparently silver plated over a non magnetic metal about 10% lighter than silver. Sadly I can’t identify where I originally bought the coins. It’s upsetting but I must do the right thing and destroy these coins to prevent any accidents or mistakes from happening.
As smart and knowledgeable as we are, the crooks are adapting as well. eBay is one of the biggest platforms that sells counterfeit coins. It’s safe to say don’t buy coins from eBay unless you immediately take them in and pay for a professional XRF scan for authenticity. Be sure to always report fraud to the website administrators, and the authorities to help prevent anyone else of becoming a victim to fraud.
Stay safe, my friends.