By Jack D. Young
This is an updated version for Proxiblog; the initial version was discussed during a “Live Coin Q&A’s podcast” and can be found at the YouTube video below. You can view that or continue reading about an 1891-CC Morgan “from the land of the Bay” … with a new twist.
Here is the listing in question:
Current eBay listed counterfeit 1891-CC not-PCGS Morgan Dollar
This coin includes “Slash, the eagle”–a common reverse we have seen on multiple counterfeit China Morgan Dollars of various dates and a mislocated “not-PCGS” label! But here the label location was new!
Large image of the reverse- not only does it sport the “slash” but the wrong mintmark position for a genuine 1891-CC:
So I thought I would start a conversation with the seller. Seller says, “It’s my grandfathers!” I respond, “Did he visit China recently?” Seller deadpans: “He’s dead.”
Didn’t see that coming. But looking up the on-line cert yielded this:
No image. I thought looking up the cited registry example would show an image of the genuine coin, but nooooo!
And the Chinese characters under “PCGS Home” seemed appropriate for this example!
More digging finally yielded a low-resolution image of the genuine example listed some time ago by APMEX.
I created this combination image of all three for reference:
What about Grandpa’s coin? It stayed up with active bidding. I posted it on my Facebook page as well as reported it to eBay through their (useless) reporting process.
I actually reported it twice, with the same results both times. Screen shot of my 2nd attempt:
Both times the Baybots said it is AOK:
So I suppose Grandpa would be proud as this finally sold for $332.00:
One has to wonder if the buyer will ever figure it out?
But once again, as Michael Bugeja, Jack Riley and I have done multiple times, reporting counterfeits to eBay, only to see the fake coins sell (as this one did), we have to wonder how can we counter this alarming trend of counterfeits being sold despite multiple reports, alerts and messages.
It seems the only recourse is to get out the word, as I did with the “Live Coin Q&A’s podcast” and as we do regularly here.
If you are interested in all of our reports, go to this tab on Proxiblog. Collectively, we have published some 21 articles about counterfeits with eBay figuring prominently in them.
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