THE CURRENT ACTION BY E BAY, BANNING COPIES, REPLICAS, COUNTERFEITS AND THE LIKE FROM THEIR WEB SITES, IS TO ME THE FIRST STRONG ACTION TO STOP THE DAMAGE THAT THE FALSE AND REPLICA COINS HAS DONE TO THE NUMISMATIC INDUSTRY

I think back to 1973 when I who was appointed as the Coin Industry's sole representative to testify before the Congress of the United States, as to the dangers and evils of not enforcing false coins sales in the United States. I remember telling the Congress that these false items, counterfeits, copies and the like were deceiving the collectors, young and old, beginners and advanced hobbyists, who were lead to believe that these replicas were possibly or actually real.

The actions taken by Congress almost 4 decades ago, not only for the coin industry, but for those who collected antique glass, artifacts from the ancient times to the current century. paintings, and other art items.to get economic presser on the marketing companies to take actions against the sale and promotion of these false items.

To me it is strange that took almost 40 years to get this matter somewhat under control. I could not count, or dare to estimate how many millions of dollars where spent and therefore wasted on these false and to me valueless items.

As an old time numismatist, who loves the hobby, the coins and paper money that is part of it, the collectors, writers and all those connected with Numismatics, I am delighted that FINALLY some concrete actions are being taken to restrict the cause of many of the abuses, the loss of the next generations of collectors who were burnt by these items, and left the hobby.