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V4 2001 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 4, Number 24, June 10, 2001, Article 11 CHEN CHO-WEI Dave Bowers reports: "I think there is a picture of Chen Cho-Wei in a Bowers and Ruddy Galleries catalogue in 1961. He was a "trader" in Hong Kong with whom Jim Ruddy spent some time. " Mike Hodder adds: "Here's some additional information regarding Chen Cho-Wei that most readers will not know. This comes from Harvey Stack, who asked me to transmit it on to E-Sylum subscribers. In the early 60's, Stack's received some unsolicited packages mailed from Hong Kong by Chen Cho-Wei. Inside were common date Indian Head Quarter Eagles, as well as Liberty Head types from the end of the series, dated around 1899- 1907. These packages were declared for U..S. Customs as American gold coins and so were not subject to duties at the time. When the first package was opened it was immediately obvious to all that the Quarter Eagles were fakes. Harvey Stack contacted the Secret Service, who put Agent Al Wong onto the case. Each new package that was sent from Hong Kong was intercepted by Agent Wong, who slowly built up a case against Chen Cho-Wei. As a reward for his work in breaking the counterfeiting ring, Agent Wong was promoted to the Secret Service's White House detail. Harvey Stack remembers that the Hong Kong Chinese preferred Liberty Head Quarter Eagles for marriage gifts and usually paid a premium that priced them higher than Liberty Head $5's. These gifts usually took the form of 13 Quarter Eagles (in the Caribbean such gifts were usually 13 Gold Dollars but only Type 1's, not 3's). Harvey thinks that this preference may account for why the counterfeiters chose to make Quarter Eagles rather than 5's or 10's. Harvey remembers that he thought the counterstamps on the Trade Dollars Chen Cho-Wei sold were also fake but he didn't pay much attention to them at the time."

Wayne Homren, Editor

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