Jack D. Young
Often, I joke about the counterfeiters apparently being ahead of the genuine releases–if not ahead, they are certainly keeping up with the latest “not-PCGS” slabbed fakes!
In this exclusive Proxiblog article I will review 3 really special 2025 “numismatic treasures” showing up in different selling venues.
So, without further ado I will start with a first strike 2025 230th anniversary flowing hair:
OK, so what is the issue with this one? Well, the 230th anniversary of the flowing hair dollar was 2024 and as noted the “year of issue”!!!
So, the following example actually came across the counter of a famous Chicago Coin Shop and a friend there posted it in one of our groups.
A counterfeit walks into a coin shop 
…
These were also the subject of a short on another friend’s popular coin YouTube channel:
“Frostbyte Coins” short on the subject
Not to be outdone, eBay sellers jumped on the bandwagon as well…
eBay listed 2025 230 Anniversary “Medal Coin”
A second eBay listing
And of course, one more on the Bay:
And a 3rd bay listing at the time
One thing to notice, all sport different cert numbers versus many we have seen with common certs used; and the cert for the Chicago example pulls up as:
Pretty silly at this point…
And what’s next? How about the 2025-S First Strike proof Morgan set!
This example posted in a Face Book Group I sometimes visit:
FB Group post image
The answer to his question is “it’s fake!” and the cert number is actually for a 2022 Australian 50c piece! And again, not to be outdone another listed for sale on the Bay:
eBay listing of similar counterfeit 2025-S and fake PCGS slab
As most of these, the actual barcode on the label does not scan, but checking the cert number for the listed example (48248428) gives this result on PCGS’ cert website:
And what could possibly be next?
How about a 2025“PCGS” MS70 First Strike Silver Eagle? This from a FB group post as well:
Interesting, the cert comes up as:
PCGS on-line cert for 51841365 shows the coin type as “971094”
So, coin type 971094 in PCGS’ system is as follows:
PCGS definition of the 2025 First Strike
While 2025 (W) S1 silver eagles are designated as “971544”:
PCGS definition of the 2025 (W) First Strike at West Point
I often state the counterfeiters are NOT Numismatists. (They are crooks.)
And finding a genuine (W) example to compare to shows the following differences on the obverse slab and label:
Counterfeit on left, genuine First Strike (W) on the right
So, the “Fun” never ends with the counterfeits, and one can only wonder what they have in store for 2026!
If you like posts like this, you can read more articles on counterfeit coins by Jack D. Young, Jack Riley and Michael Bugeja at this URL. Also, please subscribe so you can get our weekly newsletter and be informed whenever there is a new article or column.
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