Buyers BEWARE from ASIAN sellers.

This sellers are selling counterfeit (FAKE) coins on E-bay as genuine, some of the fake coins are: Trade D., Seated Liberty D., Drape Bust D., Flowing Hair D., Hawaiian Dollars and many other U.S. coins.

Fake U.S. Trade Dollars have been around for many decades, mostly the crude cast pieces made out of Copper, Nickel and Zinc. These counterfeits are easy to detect, as they are almost always several grams lighter than a genuine piece, and the surfaces are rough and ragged. Unfortunately, at a Hong Kong show in 2002 a new style counterfeit Trade Dollar showed up in enormous quantities. This new, "improved" version was produced using the correct alloy of Silver and Copper, the weight of the finished pieces was accurate, and the quality was excellent.

Professionals have inspected and recorded hundreds of examples of this new fake. Most of the counterfeit Trade Dollars from this initial wave were copies of 1873-CC, 1874-CC , 1874- S, 1875-CC, 1875 -S, 1877 -CC, 1876 -CC and 1878-CC pieces, and every date and mintmark in the Trade Dollar series.

Since many of these counterfeits lacked repeating die defects that could be use to quickly identify them, authenticators began to depend on the surface characteristics and overall appearance of these fakes. Virtually every counterfeit from this source has the details of an AU to Uncirculated example. They routinely exhibit light tooling or repairs, more often on the reverse than the obverse.

Additionally, the lustre of these fakes is typically poor. Many of the pieces that were examined give the initial impression of a cleaned coin, with little to no "cartwheel" effect. The details of the peripheral elements of the design, such as the Stars on the obverse and the lettering on the reverse, will often exhibit light roughness or porosity.

Not content to stick with U.S. Trade Dollars, this counterfeiting operation has moved into a number of other coin series. Authenticators have seen this type of fake for Japanese 1 Yen and Trade Dollars, Chinese Silver Dollars from the 1910's thru the 1930's, Mexican 8 Reales pieces, the Silver Hawaiian issues of 1883, and U.S. Liberty Seated Dollars. Many of the foreign fakes I have seen are common dates, with values for genuine specimens in the $50 to $250 range. It is very reasonable to assume that other types of coins from many other countries may eventually be counterfeited, as the organizations involved in producing these fakes have shown no interest in slowing down.

My advise: Do NOT buy from ASIAN sellers specially China.