MORE ON CHINESE COUNTERFEITS

Loren Gatch writes:

Counterfeit coins by the thousands are turning up in Washington state, and authorities are warning coin collectors to be on the lookout for them.

All or most of the counterfeits appear to be from China.

"Stacks of ingots, bars, all kinds of stuff - they make everything from pennies all the way up to silver dollars," says Port Angeles police officer Duane Benedict. "China is making these things by the thousands."

Several of the fake coins were recently sold to a Port Angeles business, EZ Pawn, for $400. They would have been worth more than $1,500 had they been real, Benedict said.

Officer Benedict got a call from EZ Pawn.

"They brought me in there to look at something they thought was fake. So I was pre-warned. But I picked it up and said, 'What's fake about it?'"

The 20 counterfeit U.S. Morgan silver dollars were supposedly from a century ago. Brian Winters of EZ Pawn has bought coins for years - and even he was fooled.

To read the complete article, see: Counterfeit coins from China turning up in Wash. state (www.komonews.com/news/local/115789384.html)

The House Financial Services committee has come up with a game plan for the next two years and a review of the fakes that are bedeviling the numismatic industry will be part of it.

Primarily though, the review will have an impact on activities of the U.S. Mint and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

The announcement came Feb. 10 as the full committee voted for a plan of action.

This examination will take place over the next two years during the 112th Congress in its first and second sessions. Democrats and Republicans jointly voted on the plan and, at least with respect to the Mint and BEP, the vote was not along party lines. That means that no specific date has been set for the fakes to come up for committee scrutiny.

The language regarding the fakes is governmentese at its best. In the words of the plan, it would review "efforts to detect and combat the counterfeiting of U.S. coins and currency in the United States and abroad," and in a first, they stated that they "will examine the counterfeiting of rare or investment-grade coins, U.S.-made and otherwise."

To read the complete article, see: Congress to Review Chinese Fakes (www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=18178)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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