Tag Archives: AliExpress

“NOT PCGS” Draped Bust $

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By Jack D. Young

During a normal internet dumpster dive for counterfeits I spotted this listing on AliExpress–an obvious “Red Book Counterfeit”–due to the off-center bust design only used on a 1795 dated variety.

A “Red Book Counterfeit” refers to a fake coin that resembles a genuine U.S. coin as illustrated in the reference guide, “A Guide Book of United States Coins.” The Red Book serves as a comprehensive, annually updated price guide that provides detailed information on genuine U.S. coins. But counterfeiters, especially in China, use the volume as a design guide in manufacturing fakes.

As you might expect, AliExpress is owned by the Chinese company Alibaba Group, a multinational technology company that focuses on e-commerce, retail, internet, and technology (seemingly without a care about counterfeit coins).

Here is the AliExpress fake:

Past Ali listed 1796 PCGS draped bust dollar

Checking the PCGS cert number pulled this info up from their website:

PCGS on-line info for the labeled cert #

Not even close to the genuine one!

Comparison images to the genuine PCGS example for the cert #

So, considering a purchase I decided to message a question to the seller, “Lucy Coins Store,” which has been on Ali for several years. I was the first to report that this seller houses counterfeits in fake PCGS slabs!

And I sent the following note and received the following answer:

And another side note: I have purchased “coins” from the other sellers listed there and received refunds due to their being “not as described” and reported counterfeits.

I decided to purchase it and see what I would receive; and the fake did in fact look like the listed example.

Counterfeit received

Once in-hand, I started the return/ refund process through Ali; having talked with customer service there before they feign no tolerance for selling counterfeits on their venue. I was almost instantly informed my request was denied! So, I submitted another request:

A solution of “no refund” again. They called it “a new proposal.” So, I uploaded more in as much as they noted that I “rejected the solution of AliExpress”; well, yeah. …

And another rejection and so-called “solution”:

Actually, they do have a repeal process which I initiated and sent additional info:

In addition to the 2 side-by-side comparison images I sent this one trying to explain the issue!

Combination image of why this one is wrong!

And again, I was rejected; they did allow me to appeal again.

Appealed through their process

And rejected…

Best I can tell, they really didn’t care the coin is a counterfeit but that it was properly imaged in the listing.

Next step, take it to PayPal! There you can select that you received a counterfeit item and I sent all of the documents I had generated for the Ali report. Unfortunately, I received a pretty quick response that I hadn’t made my case adequately and had 3 days to add information or they would side with the seller.

So, I added some information about counterfeits, including how this bust design was only used for 1795 AND an image I had reported it through the Anti-Counterfeit Education Foundation.

And from there I waited, wondering if I would even get another response. And then:

And so, it ends with this one; it is interesting that when you click on the old sales link you get this, a similar but different counterfeit. But I am not willing to test me luck this time😎!

Latest Ali listing at same seller/ listing location as mine.

I realize that identifying this counterfeit took years of skill compounded by dogged persistence. Some collectors might not know how to identify fakes with die markers. But as Proxiblog’s Michael Bugeja often notes, the Chinese just can’t get the font right (nor understand how and when to use a hyphen [as in “off-center”].)

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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You can find more information about errors and varieties as well as buying and bidding on coins in Coin News Updated: The Essential Guide to Online Bidding. Please consider purchasing the work for yourself or a friend, as it underwrites this hobbyist website. Thank you.

“PCGS certified” Etsy!

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By Jack D. Young

In my normal dumpster diving on the internet I ran into a rather nasty counterfeit on Etsy.

Just looked off to my “fake” eye, I started my usual due diligence starting with the PCGS cert look up. The image of the genuine one does NOT match which then lead me to the slab and inserts themselves.

Etsy listed example on the left, Genuine certed example on the right
PCGS on-line cert with image

Bar code scans of the Etsy example- as usual the front barcode read an entirely different cert #. In fact it doesn’t even exist in the PCGS on-line data base!

And the reverse–typical read for these fake holders, the QR code scans as the correct Cert number but for the “CN” (Chinese) PCGS site!

On-line bar code reader image of the reverse QR code

So, I sent the seller a note; that went well.

Back and forth messages with the seller

So now what? Well I remembered that “Report this item to Etsy” link on the listing and took that approach.

Reported through their process

Really no way to know if this would get any interest at Etsy. I waited and continued to check the site for this item and seller. But the seller appeared to just add more bad items to his listings.

Only $599.99 for the Walton 1913 Liberty nickel!!! But I also noticed he now started to hide the cert number with his new 1883-CC listing.

OK, let’s try this again.

Reporting process for Etsy

Just a note, “Counterfeit” is a reportable violation on Etsy unlike AliExpress!

And another report through their process

At this point I decided to let PCGS know about these. I contacted my contact there as well as posted on their CU Forum. Like many of my posts there I don’t appear to get much traction although someone did alert the Mod there to my post.

My post on PCGS’ CU Forum

I also notified some friends involved in counterfeit reporting as well, and then waited. I even considered purchasing one of these to see what I actually would receive, had it in my cart but couldn’t pull the trigger. Didn’t want to aid the seller with no assurance I would get my price of admission back…

I did take another shot at reporting through Etsy on his bad Trade Dollar.

Bad Trade form the same seller; now he tried to partially block “PCGS”

Waiting, checking and then this!

Really? Success? And how or why may always escape me but the seller is GONE. I looked up my saved links for his bad wares and all are now gone.

So, I tried to message the seller, and guess what? He’s GONE as well; hopefully in a cell block somewhere!

Persistence or stubbornness? Not sure, but I’ll keep on keeping on as the Beatles said “with a little help from my Friends”!

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You can find more information about errors and varieties as well as buying and bidding on coins in Coin News Updated: The Essential Guide to Online Bidding. Please consider purchasing the work for yourself or a friend, as it underwrites this hobbyist website. Thank you.

Rise of Virtual Counterfeits

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By Jack D. Young

It’s bad enough there are so many counterfeits in the marketplace but now you have to be on the lookout for stolen and/or photoshopped images as well–basically, these are “virtual counterfeits”!

The bad 1928 Peace dollars continue to hit listings, with my previous Proxiblog article on these published this past week.  One of the sellers using photoshopped images for a 1928-S listing had these three listed in her selling history:

3 Past eBay listings of PCGS Gold Buffalos

A friend who helps me report bad eBay listings for removal often talks about “fake sales”–sales shown to make the seller appear more successful or “trustworthy” than they may actually be. These can be done by friends and/or the same seller under a different seller ID. Often the same item shown sold then shows “relisted.”…

So, starting with the 2017, it shows sold twice but with a relist, so who knows? May have been the only bid the 1st time. Images used originally came from the Heritage auction listed on the PCGS online cert.

PCGS online cert; no TrueView image but lists auction appearance

The Bay seller’s 2nd listing used the same images as well; no way to know what actually sold, as the seller stated she was “selling them for a friend.”…

Some additional searching found an AliExpress example for sale:

AliExpress listing for the 2017 Buff using Heritages auction images

Both “sellers” are using Heritage’s images without authorization, and I did notify my contact there. Ali description is clearly not of a genuine coin, so again who knows what one is buying!

And then the 2018; this one just looks bad! I would guess the Bay lister photoshopped a genuine coin into the bad slab/ label. The reverse image used is of the previous Heritage 2017 example!

eBay listed “2018 PCGS” gold Buff; same reverse as “2017” above

The PCGS online cert has an image of the genuine coin but not one in the slab; it certainly doesn’t look like this one. …

PCGS on-line cert and TrueView image

Comparison image of the Bay listed example obverse to the genuine example from the PCGS cert shows the Bay example image is not a good choice:

Bad Bay example on the left, genuine example on the right

And I also found the Ali offering for this one!

AliExpress listing for the 2018 Buff using their images

Looks like the AliExpress 2018 Buff is the only listed example here that a buyer would actually receive. …

I did check the seller’s feedback and she had received 1 for the three “sold” Buffs:

Seller Feedback for the “2018” gold buffalo listing

I was curious about the note “verified purchase” and looked it up. Per eBay, “We’ve added this text to remove any doubt that the person leaving the feedback was involved in the transaction.”

Wow! The coin imaged in the positive feedback doesn’t look anything like the seller’s listing image, so “verified” obviously didn’t mean what I initially thought!

eBay feedback image of the coin received?

Love the little dog, the “coin” not so much, as I have seen a number of fakes like this in fake NGC holders. Image isn’t clear enough to check the cert, but clear enough to see it isn’t the PCGS one!

It is getting harder to keep up with all the ways scammers and the like are challenging collectors and the Hobby.

Note: To read more Jack D. Young Reports, go to the archive tab on Proxiblog.

If you like posts like this, please subscribe so you can get our weekly newsletter and be informed whenever there is a new article or column.

Proxiblog also has thousands of followers on Facebook Coin Groups, YouTube and social media. To get the latest discussion and commentaries, click here.

You can find more information about errors and varieties as well as buying and bidding on coins in Coin News Updated: The Essential Guide to Online Bidding. Please consider purchasing the work for yourself or a friend, as it underwrites this hobbyist website. Thank you.