The Chinese are at it yet again. Okay, not everyone in China is trying to steal from us, so we can't blame all of them, but they do nothing to stop it.

I buy and sell coins. last week I bought a 2009 silver eagle on ebay... From China.. So I was expecting it. They sold it for $15.88. They are now closed down, I have passed the fake coin to the US mint. The coin was silver plated and copper.

Our US Silver eagles are 100% .999 Fine silver. Here is how to check to see if you have a fake coin.

Weight should be 1 oz Troy or 31.2 grams or1.1 US ounces or 20dwt, many are 20.1 DWT.

Fake or Replica coins may or may not have a silver plated finsih on them. The better quality coins are plated but have a differnt sheen to them.

Coins Edge. The fakes dont have a reeded edge, don't think you have a rare mint error.

Check with magnification or a loop of at least 10 x. Silver plating can sometimes fail to fill all the corners and edges.

Silver Ring test! Hold them up and click them together and listen, real silver has a distinctive ring to it.

But most importantly is common sense. US coins are produced in the US. We have many dealers who buy them when the price of silver is low and then sell them for a profit to collectors. There is a great deal of competition between sellers, it would be impossible to add the expense of shipping them across the world to China and Hong Kong and for them to sell them back with shipping at a price lower or the same as the US sellers.

Hong Kong sellers are now selling Morgan Dollars, Mercury Dimes  and seated Libery coins. They look perfect. They look too good to be true.......... Wake up! What does that tell you? They are fakes, look at the sellers feedback, they have multiple of accounts and bid on each others accounts to up the price and of course, should they win, they give 100% feedback. They do not fetch high prices as most collectors can spot them for what they are... Fake. So now and again, the odd coin collector buys them thinking he has a deal, then gets the perfect  FAKE coin. The sad thing is, they then try to cut there loses and sell it themselves.

If you buy a coin and know its a fake, don't worry, report it to Pay Pal as 'Item not as described" Only communicate via pay pal and you will get the chance to return the coin and get your money back. You will only be out the return shipping costs, make sure you when you return it, you get tracking and a signature, No exeptions, these people are crooks and know how to beat the system.