Everyone knows that Chinese counterfeits have flooded the coin market with some production estimates exporting between 100,000 to 500,000 counterfeit coins per month. The majority of these are offered as raw coins on eBay, Etsy and Temu, among others. But now a new threat has emerged: sellers offering counterfeits in fake PCGS holders with phony “Not PCGS” certification sites.
This is a much-overlooked consequence because it attacks the fundamental priority of top holdering companies: authentication.
These fakes pop up when you try to access PCGS. To show how frequent, I now will access the site and report the results in 10 minutes of searching.
These are from different sellers. I could have published a dozen or more.
When viewing counterfeit “Not PCGS” coins on eBay, you’ll see that sellers have few sales. Never bid or buy from such sellers. Nevertheless, that is not the lesson here. It is the erosion of the reputation of the top holdering companies in the hobby.
While we cannot do anything about Chinese fakes, we can ask eBay to listen more closely to our messages and reports about counterfeits and perhaps fix their algorithm and provide more education for their customer service employees.
To be fair, eBay has honored many of our complaints about counterfeit coins. It has forced sellers to reimburse buyers of counterfeit coins. We know that.
But the issue now is the proliferation of counterfeits in fake PCGS holders. An algorithm or customer service employee may see that famous logo and–ironically!–believe the listing is authentic because … wait for it … it trusts PCGS’s reputation.
That is why counterfeiters are using fake PCGS holders, playing off of PCGS’s good name.
Every hobbyist needs to know counterfeit detection. Click here for that. Here is a visual primer on how you, too, can identify counterfeit coins in fake PCGS holders:
You can also visit the Ant-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation for comprehensive information about all manner of fake coins.
Our concern here focuses on the hobby and the ramifications of using fake PCGS holders to fool hobbyists into thinking they have a genuine coin.
While many hobbyists have complained about counterfeits, the conventional wisdom is disappointing: nothing can be done because the Chinese government allows this as part of its economy.
That thinking results in defeatism. If nothing can be done, then the hobby is at risk. But that risk is becoming greater each day. If eBay in particular does little when informed about counterfeits, because (a) its algorithm cannot detect a fake based on die markers and (b) its customer service may not be schooled enough to know those markers, seeing only a slabbed PCGS coin; then (c) the corporate reputation of PCGS is at issue.
This is an article about that premise. eBay can argue that it has invested $X amount of dollars in counterfeit detection and even has customer service employees check listings when multiple complaints have been lodged; but if both are proving at many occasions ineffective, that is not a strong defense when it comes to PCGS. It only means that eBay’s methods need enhancement.
These are matters beyond the scope of this article.
Stephanie Sabin, president of PCGS, is aware of the ongoing issue.
She provided Proxiblog with this statement:
“Since founding PCGS in 1986, our mission has been to protect collectors through leading authentication, grading, and the most secure holders in the industry. However, a powerful brand inevitably attracts counterfeiters, and we treat combating these fraudulent holders as an aggressive, ongoing priority. True security requires staying multiple steps ahead, which is why we continually invest in advanced overt and covert security features across all our product lines. We applaud the dedicated individuals and organizations within our community who work tirelessly to educate collectors on the dangers of counterfeit holders; their vigilance to eliminate altered and fraudulent collectibles is essential to protecting consumers and preserving the integrity of the numismatic marketplace. By combining their grassroots educational initiatives with our ongoing technical innovations and strengthened marketplace partnerships, we will continue to build a safer, more secure hobby for all.”
In recent years, Chinese counterfeiters have upped the ante, targeting PCGS, often cited as the most reliable and top holdering company. Not only are the coins fake; the holders are too. And the certs open to a fake PCGS authentication site.
Proxiblog’s Jack Young, Jack Riley and Michael Bugeja have been monitoring the proliferation of “Not PCGS” counterfeit coins.
In January, Jack Young wrote, “As if the Chinese counterfeit coins in fake PCGS slabs isn’t bad enough, now there appears to be a fake Chinese PCGS website to verify them.”
Young identified this counterfeit:
Of course he checked the cert and found no similar or other coin. His next step was to try to read the reverse label QR code. He got this:
A fake coin. A fake holder. A fake site. (If you are interested in the complete article about this fake coin and site, click here.) Jack Young has found that this trifecta is happening again.
He has found two more sellers that offer fake coins in fake PCGS holders with certs going to a fake PCGS site.
Jack Young says “Michael and I have been discussing what I have termed the ‘proliferation’ of counterfeit coins using stolen PCGS Intellectual Property, fake ‘PCGS’ holders on eBay. I see all of the listings ‘allowed’ there as a huge failing of eBay. And their AI reporting process is also an apparent failure to many collectors and hobbyists as well.
“So, going forward I use eBay for new material to write counterfeit articles on, and today’s usual browse of ‘US Coins’ on the Bay resulted in 44 counterfeit coins in fake PCGS slabs listed on just the 1st page. I screen-printed a number but quite frankly got tired of the effort after documenting these below.”
Snippet of the 44 listings available on 1-page of eBay US Coin listings 6-11-26
The frustration with eBay stems from counterfeit experts using the eBay reporting system only to be told that the fraudulent listing is fine and nothing will be done. Example:
But it gets worse. Jack Young has been warned about reporting counterfeit coins on eBay, further damaging its supposed defense that it vets all reports of fake offerings on the platform. Example:
Because of the proliferation of “Not PCGS” counterfeits, Jack Young and Proxiblog have received or seen requests on Facebook coin groups to check if an actual authentic PCGS coin is, well, authentic!
In sum, scam sellers acting in effect as agents of Chinese counterfeiters are eroding the very heart of what top holdering companies do: authenticate.
The question now, of course, is what can be done collectively.
Jack Young and I have contacts at PCGS, which has encouraged us to report fake offerings and to do one more thing: inform the company if eBay refuses to take action. But that will hardly fix the problem. The issue at hand is what can be done when popular platforms like eBay get it wrong at the expense of its bidders and holdering companies.
That will have to be decided by others.
Proxiblog can help by continuing to grow our subscriber base and influence on Facebook. Jack Young and Jack Riley also have large spheres of influence. But we need the American Numismatic Association, the U.S. Mint and the National Coin and Bullion Association to understand this new threat of corporate reputation and to break the defeatism that nothing can be done.
Let’s review legalities:
Counterfeiting or knowingly passing fake coins is a federal crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison and severe fines. The U.S. Secret Service investigates all suspected counterfeit coins.
The creation, sale and distribution (pertinent here) of fake coins can be prosecuted under United States Codes:
- Manufacturing and Forging (18 U.S. Code § 485): Falsely making, forging, or counterfeiting any coin (valued higher than 5 cents) or any gold or silver bar is punishable by up to 15 years in prison and substantial fines.
- Passing or Possessing (18 U.S. Code § 485): Passing, selling or bringing counterfeit coins into the United States with the intent to defraud carries a penalty of up to 5 years in prison.
There is also the Hobby Protection Act, which states, it is illegal to buy, sell or possess counterfeit coins. Moreover, all replica, copy or imitation numismatic items must be plainly and permanently marked with the word “COPY”.
If you have been bought a counterfeit coin, you should turn it over to your area United States Secret Service Field Office.
Jack Young, Michael Bugeja and Proxiblog subscribers have encountered sellers who bought a counterfeit coin, are reselling it as genuine and refuse to take it down.
We present one example here, but we encounter this regularly.
Here are exchanges by Bugeja and subscriber Tim Scott, trying fruitlessly with eBay to take down this obvious fake. Our complaints were ignored by eBay.
Despite our concerns, shared across Facebook coin groups, the fake coin in a fake PCGS holder sold for $607.33. You can see it had 24 bids.
We thank Stephanie Sabin and PCGS for helping us safeguard their reputation and our hobby.
If you like posts like this, please go to our counterfeit archive with reports from Jack Riley, Jack D. Young, John Lorenzo and Michael Bugeja. Also, please subscribe so you be informed whenever there is a new article or column.
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