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Are you new to eBay? Or have you been buying coins here for years? New collector? Or experienced? It makes no difference to thieves. YOU are their target, and this Guide should help you avoid their traps.
If this Guide helps you, please take a moment to vote YES at the bottom of the page.
1. BEFORE BIDDING: Look at coins as they are listed, not as they are about to close. Instead of sniping at the last minute to get a "bargain," give yourself time to do some research. Some sellers are not honest, and a fake coin is never a bargain. The best way to avoid buying fake coins is to know what you're buying. That takes reading reference books, going to coin shows to look at many coins to train your eye, and asking those with experience about what to look for, so that you become familiar with the type of coin you are buying.
2. PHOTOGRAPHS CAN TELL LIES: It is possible to identify some fakes from something seen in a photograph, because a tell-tale diagnostic (such as the initials V.D.B. on a Lincoln Cent) is either present, or missing. Sometimes, the coin pictured may even match a coin known to be counterfeit, or a seam on a cast coin is visible. Avoid coins when only one side of the coin is shown, because there may be something hidden that you should see.
But what if there is nothing obvious, yet the coin illustrated "looks fake?" That means nothing by itself, because many sellers use poor photographic equipment or techniques, and some coins present a challenge, even to those with good photographic skills. And what if the coin illustrated "looks real?" That may also mean nothing by itself, because digital images can be easily altered. Worse still, a seller can illustrate a nice coin, but then ship a fake instead. Some sellers do not own any coins, they simply use stolen photos, and ship nothing. The possibilities are endless.
No matter what a photograph shows, judging whether a coin is real or not from photographs is mostly guesswork, especially since digital photographs can be altered. Therefore, it is often not possible to say that a coin is authentic or not, merely by looking at a photograph, and there is no substitute for physically examining a coin, because looking at a two-dimensional picture of a coin is vastly different from examining the coin in person.
3. INVESTIGATE THE SELLER'S FEEDBACK: Take a close look at a seller's feedback, including that from other sellers, to see if those sellers have sold fakes to your seller that he might be reselling to you. Examine the seller's past sales carefully, and bid only if he has sold coins of similar type, quality, and value. Also, look for "instant" feedback, where a seller lists a bunch of low price items (1 cent, etc.), then "sells" them all to the same bidder, or buys a lot of low price items from other sellers himself, all designed to produce a lot of positive feedback quickly.
4. ASK YOURSELF EIGHT QUESTIONS: Does the seller guarantee that the coin is genuine? Is a return policy stated that allows you enough time to examine your purchases? Is a 100% unconditional refund offered? Are both sides of the coin shown, in clear, detailed photos? Does the ad explicitly state that "you will receive the coin in the photo?" Can you authenticate the coin yourself, OR get a knowledgeable opinion, once you have the coin? Does the seller try to restrict your rights with phrases such as "sold as is" or "no returns allowed?" Is this a rare (valuable) coin that is not certified by a major firm (ANACS, ICG, NGC, PCGS, or SEGS) especially key date coins listed with a low starting price and with no reserve?
5. WHAT TO ASK THE SELLER: Don't be shy. Ask about anything above that is not clear to you, especially about guarantees, return privileges, whether it has been cleaned, and if it is an expensive and/or widely faked coin, ask "why isn't it certified?" If pictures are not clear, ask for better ones, and don't bid unless you get them, especially if the seller uses stock photos, or a photo of a slab with the certification numbers obscured. You can also ask whether the purchase can be made conditional, based on having it certified, even before delivery to you. Finally, be sure to save the seller's e-mailed replies, in case the deal goes sour.
6. IF YOU ARE THE WINNING BIDDER: Always pay with PayPal, and fund that payment with a Credit Card (not with money from your bank account or a Debit Card), so that if something goes wrong, you can file a claim with PayPal, and as a last resort, with your Credit Card's issuer.
7. WHEN YOU GET THE COIN: If possible, compare the coin side-by-side, with one of the same type that you know is genuine. Weigh it on a digital scale that is accurate to a hundredth of a gram, and compare the result with what a genuine coin should weigh. Fake coins often have incorrect (usually low) weight, or extra thickness to get the correct weight. Examine it closely with a magnifying lens or loupe. While three to five power is useful for grading, ten to twenty power is essential for examining important details (such as mintmarks) close-up.
8. SOME THINGS TO LOOK FOR: Check the coin's surface for a "grainy" appearance, pimple-like raised metal, pits, or an unnatural appearance that a genuine coin should not have. Fake coins often lack normally sharp details, or appear to be worn unevenly. In addition, the luster of fakes is typically poor, often dull gray (if silver), or may give an initial impression of a cleaned coin, with higher grades (uncirculated) showing little of the "cartwheel" effect that it should have. If it's a "raw" coin, check the edge and both rims for tampering, seams, filing marks, etc. If the coin is in a slab, check the seams for any evidence of tampering or re-gluing.
9. CHECK THE REEDING: Coins have three sides, and since most US coins have a reeded edge, be sure to examine it closely. The reeds of US coins were made by a collar die around the outer perimeter of the striking chamber of the press. When the planchet is between the dies, the collar encloses it, and the striking pressure forces the metal into the reeds. This means edges should be uniform for each type of coin.
Fakes made by other methods will not look the same, so line up the reeds of a known genuine coin with the coin you just bought, and look for differences. There should not be any differences, such as the size, number, spacing, uniformity, or overlapping of the reeds, and they should be sharp where they meet the obverse and reverse rims, and not rounded. NOTE: early US (bust type) coins, made prior to 1836, were not struck in a collar, so the denticles should extend fully to the edge, with no circular rim around them on the obverse or the reverse. Some fakes will have such rims around the denticles.
10. MINTMARKS ARE EASY TO FAKE: Be very careful if the value of a coin depends on the mintmark. You can look for obvious alterations, but because there is a tremendous variation among Mintmark styles/shapes, positions, and size, authentication of "key dates" is best left to an expert, and coins certified by major firms are much safer than "raw" coins.
However, there are some things an experienced collector can watch for:
First, a mintmark can be scraped off one common coin, and glued to another common coin, making it appear to be a rare "key date" coin. Examine the mintmark carefully with a high-power lens, where it meets the coin - there should be no gap. Also, discoloration is a sign that heat has been applied to solder a mintmark to the coin.
Second, metal can be "chased," and a mintmark created by pushing metal from the surrounding area, to form a "created" mintmark. Again, examine the area around the mintmark carefully with a high-power lens, for signs of tool marks.
Third, if the date is on the obverse, and the mintmark is on the reverse, examine the rims on both sides with a high-power lens. Two coins can be sandwiched together, by planing one side off, and inserting it into a hollowed-out reverse (or obverse). Also examine the edge for evidence of where the halves of two coins that were planed down have been joined together.
Fourth, less common, but very deceptive, are "embossed" mintmarks. These show no gap, because the coin was drilled from the edge, and the mintmark inserted into the hole, followed by carefully pressing the coin back together. The fake mintmark inside pushes up the surface metal, and the result looks perfect, because it's part of the coin. Examine the edge for evidence of repairs made to cover the hole.
I hope this Guide helped you. If it did please take a moment to vote YES below. Thank you!
If this Guide helps you, please take a moment to vote YES at the bottom of the page.
1. BEFORE BIDDING: Look at coins as they are listed, not as they are about to close. Instead of sniping at the last minute to get a "bargain," give yourself time to do some research. Some sellers are not honest, and a fake coin is never a bargain. The best way to avoid buying fake coins is to know what you're buying. That takes reading reference books, going to coin shows to look at many coins to train your eye, and asking those with experience about what to look for, so that you become familiar with the type of coin you are buying.
2. PHOTOGRAPHS CAN TELL LIES: It is possible to identify some fakes from something seen in a photograph, because a tell-tale diagnostic (such as the initials V.D.B. on a Lincoln Cent) is either present, or missing. Sometimes, the coin pictured may even match a coin known to be counterfeit, or a seam on a cast coin is visible. Avoid coins when only one side of the coin is shown, because there may be something hidden that you should see.
But what if there is nothing obvious, yet the coin illustrated "looks fake?" That means nothing by itself, because many sellers use poor photographic equipment or techniques, and some coins present a challenge, even to those with good photographic skills. And what if the coin illustrated "looks real?" That may also mean nothing by itself, because digital images can be easily altered. Worse still, a seller can illustrate a nice coin, but then ship a fake instead. Some sellers do not own any coins, they simply use stolen photos, and ship nothing. The possibilities are endless.
No matter what a photograph shows, judging whether a coin is real or not from photographs is mostly guesswork, especially since digital photographs can be altered. Therefore, it is often not possible to say that a coin is authentic or not, merely by looking at a photograph, and there is no substitute for physically examining a coin, because looking at a two-dimensional picture of a coin is vastly different from examining the coin in person.
3. INVESTIGATE THE SELLER'S FEEDBACK: Take a close look at a seller's feedback, including that from other sellers, to see if those sellers have sold fakes to your seller that he might be reselling to you. Examine the seller's past sales carefully, and bid only if he has sold coins of similar type, quality, and value. Also, look for "instant" feedback, where a seller lists a bunch of low price items (1 cent, etc.), then "sells" them all to the same bidder, or buys a lot of low price items from other sellers himself, all designed to produce a lot of positive feedback quickly.
4. ASK YOURSELF EIGHT QUESTIONS: Does the seller guarantee that the coin is genuine? Is a return policy stated that allows you enough time to examine your purchases? Is a 100% unconditional refund offered? Are both sides of the coin shown, in clear, detailed photos? Does the ad explicitly state that "you will receive the coin in the photo?" Can you authenticate the coin yourself, OR get a knowledgeable opinion, once you have the coin? Does the seller try to restrict your rights with phrases such as "sold as is" or "no returns allowed?" Is this a rare (valuable) coin that is not certified by a major firm (ANACS, ICG, NGC, PCGS, or SEGS) especially key date coins listed with a low starting price and with no reserve?
5. WHAT TO ASK THE SELLER: Don't be shy. Ask about anything above that is not clear to you, especially about guarantees, return privileges, whether it has been cleaned, and if it is an expensive and/or widely faked coin, ask "why isn't it certified?" If pictures are not clear, ask for better ones, and don't bid unless you get them, especially if the seller uses stock photos, or a photo of a slab with the certification numbers obscured. You can also ask whether the purchase can be made conditional, based on having it certified, even before delivery to you. Finally, be sure to save the seller's e-mailed replies, in case the deal goes sour.
6. IF YOU ARE THE WINNING BIDDER: Always pay with PayPal, and fund that payment with a Credit Card (not with money from your bank account or a Debit Card), so that if something goes wrong, you can file a claim with PayPal, and as a last resort, with your Credit Card's issuer.
7. WHEN YOU GET THE COIN: If possible, compare the coin side-by-side, with one of the same type that you know is genuine. Weigh it on a digital scale that is accurate to a hundredth of a gram, and compare the result with what a genuine coin should weigh. Fake coins often have incorrect (usually low) weight, or extra thickness to get the correct weight. Examine it closely with a magnifying lens or loupe. While three to five power is useful for grading, ten to twenty power is essential for examining important details (such as mintmarks) close-up.
8. SOME THINGS TO LOOK FOR: Check the coin's surface for a "grainy" appearance, pimple-like raised metal, pits, or an unnatural appearance that a genuine coin should not have. Fake coins often lack normally sharp details, or appear to be worn unevenly. In addition, the luster of fakes is typically poor, often dull gray (if silver), or may give an initial impression of a cleaned coin, with higher grades (uncirculated) showing little of the "cartwheel" effect that it should have. If it's a "raw" coin, check the edge and both rims for tampering, seams, filing marks, etc. If the coin is in a slab, check the seams for any evidence of tampering or re-gluing.
9. CHECK THE REEDING: Coins have three sides, and since most US coins have a reeded edge, be sure to examine it closely. The reeds of US coins were made by a collar die around the outer perimeter of the striking chamber of the press. When the planchet is between the dies, the collar encloses it, and the striking pressure forces the metal into the reeds. This means edges should be uniform for each type of coin.
Fakes made by other methods will not look the same, so line up the reeds of a known genuine coin with the coin you just bought, and look for differences. There should not be any differences, such as the size, number, spacing, uniformity, or overlapping of the reeds, and they should be sharp where they meet the obverse and reverse rims, and not rounded. NOTE: early US (bust type) coins, made prior to 1836, were not struck in a collar, so the denticles should extend fully to the edge, with no circular rim around them on the obverse or the reverse. Some fakes will have such rims around the denticles.
10. MINTMARKS ARE EASY TO FAKE: Be very careful if the value of a coin depends on the mintmark. You can look for obvious alterations, but because there is a tremendous variation among Mintmark styles/shapes, positions, and size, authentication of "key dates" is best left to an expert, and coins certified by major firms are much safer than "raw" coins.
However, there are some things an experienced collector can watch for:
First, a mintmark can be scraped off one common coin, and glued to another common coin, making it appear to be a rare "key date" coin. Examine the mintmark carefully with a high-power lens, where it meets the coin - there should be no gap. Also, discoloration is a sign that heat has been applied to solder a mintmark to the coin.
Second, metal can be "chased," and a mintmark created by pushing metal from the surrounding area, to form a "created" mintmark. Again, examine the area around the mintmark carefully with a high-power lens, for signs of tool marks.
Third, if the date is on the obverse, and the mintmark is on the reverse, examine the rims on both sides with a high-power lens. Two coins can be sandwiched together, by planing one side off, and inserting it into a hollowed-out reverse (or obverse). Also examine the edge for evidence of where the halves of two coins that were planed down have been joined together.
Fourth, less common, but very deceptive, are "embossed" mintmarks. These show no gap, because the coin was drilled from the edge, and the mintmark inserted into the hole, followed by carefully pressing the coin back together. The fake mintmark inside pushes up the surface metal, and the result looks perfect, because it's part of the coin. Examine the edge for evidence of repairs made to cover the hole.
I hope this Guide helped you. If it did please take a moment to vote YES below. Thank you!
Guide created: 09/03/07 (updated 09/30/08)
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