How to Authenticate slabbed coins? Weight?

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How to Authenticate slabbed coins? Weight?

#1 Unread post by bobber »

New collector here.
I have some slabbed coins (PCGS, NGC).
They were bought from sellers on ebay and amazon.
How can I tell that they aren't fake?
There are some tests I can't do without breaking them out of the slabs.
I tried weighing them in the slabs, and ended up in a fruitless search for the weight of the slabs.

So, how does one know that a slabbed coin isn't a fake coin in a fake slab?
Send it back to the grading service?

Thanks, Bob

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Re: How to Authenticate slabbed coins? Weight?

#2 Unread post by JTCC »

You can look up the serial number on the slab on PCGS and NGC’s website. just search “PGCS verify” or “NGC verify” and you should find a page that lets you to type in the serial number.
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Re: How to Authenticate slabbed coins? Weight?

#3 Unread post by bobber »

Yup. Did that. But I hear that people are faking slabs as well as coins.

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Re: How to Authenticate slabbed coins? Weight?

#4 Unread post by SensibleSal66 »

That unfortunately is happening. Some I know will break it open and weigh it and if examined and found authenticate will often have it recertified. Cut your losses if Fake or return it and at least you'll know. Is there a particular coin that you have in question?
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Re: How to Authenticate slabbed coins? Weight?

#5 Unread post by USSID18 »

Take it to a local coin shop first. Let the dealer examine it. If he's any good, he "should" be able to tell if the slab has been tampered with.

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Re: How to Authenticate slabbed coins? Weight?

#6 Unread post by Algots »

Is there a reason for you to suspect that your specific coin is a fake?
It could get quite costly if you get every coin bought (re)authenticated?

Personally, I would be wary of any coins coming out of China. That would cover about 90% of your fakes.

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Re: How to Authenticate slabbed coins? Weight?

#7 Unread post by Paul »

Welcome

There will come a time, if you stick with it long enough, …
that you will be able to differentiate when your slab is real/fake/tampered with…

Of course, after handling thousands of slabs year after year,… It just becomes a 2nd sense
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Re: How to Authenticate slabbed coins? Weight?

#8 Unread post by Coin Mule »

bobber wrote: Tue Jan 04, 2022 12:19 am New collector here.
I have some slabbed coins (PCGS, NGC).
They were bought from sellers on ebay and amazon.
How can I tell that they aren't fake?
There are some tests I can't do without breaking them out of the slabs.
I tried weighing them in the slabs, and ended up in a fruitless search for the weight of the slabs.

So, how does one know that a slabbed coin isn't a fake coin in a fake slab?
Send it back to the grading service?

Thanks, Bob
B 🐕,what up. Ebay and amazon are the wild west, if you are a collector, buy from someone trustworthy. Daniel has a store, Coinopp, Ben at Old Pueblo Coin, Spegtacular, and Coin Guy, all reputable. When is a good deal not a good deal, when you by a forged slab, coin, and pay over retail.

If you are a collector, just pay the price and get the assurance of honesty and backup. Of course, if you have a list of 10k worth of coins you want, there is no doubt you will get a discount, but for one coin, Foggetabautit.

Now if you are a flipper, hey you take the risk, it is business. But again, the same principle applies as far as quantity sales are concerned, you come in with 5k-10k of cash, gold, silver, Bitcoin, allow them to give you some good stuff and lay off some commons they have been holding on to and taking up space, you can make some milk money. Now remember, even the pros get burned, I know someone who bought some "BU" Morgans, and turned up "AU", hey it happens, so there is nothing you can do to "lay off" all the risk, but you can minimize it by following sound business practices.

EDIT, This is my personal experience being a "back pocket" dealer, (I hope to graduate to "vest pocket" dealer as soon as going to coin shows, and out of state shops make scientific sense to me) Your Mileage May Vary
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Re: How to Authenticate slabbed coins? Weight?

#9 Unread post by Daniel »

You buy from a reputable dealer until you've studied fake slabs and coins. Only way to go about this. Certification numbers can be used on fake labels. So that's not a fail safe.

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Re: How to Authenticate slabbed coins? Weight?

#10 Unread post by bobber »

Thanks EVERYONE for all the advice! I really appreciate it.

Just FYI, I was an amateur collector way back when, just for fun, pennies from my pocket.
I am back into it, just for fun, because my honeybunch has gotten the bug.
I never saw (or heard of) a 'slab' before a few weeks ago. We only have a couple, and will probably never have more. But, all were obtained from reputable dealers. Even if those dealers let something questionable through there's not enough money at stake for returns to be worthwhile.

I have some experience in manufacturing quality control, including electronics, metals and plastics. So, I think I have pretty good chances at spotting slab tampering. But, a completely forged slab would be beyond me.

This is just part of my learning process really. We'll probably go to a coin show and ask some dealers to look at our stuff. That seems like one fun way to learn from an expert.

Again THANK YOU ALL !

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Re: How to Authenticate slabbed coins? Weight?

#11 Unread post by Earle42 »

one more thing is that some of the faked labs are terrible as well. I am sorry I cannot point you to the exact website, but I know that in the past (maybe it was PCGS or NGC?) the fake slabs were being identified by wrong fonts, wrong spelling (LOL!) etc.

Another method is to use, as has been said, the lookup method at those sites and see if PCGS has a picture of the coin itself. Some of the fakes in slabs, when the minute (positions of design elements in relation to another, the shape of font serifs, etc.) details are examined, do not match the actual slabbed coin's pictures. The fakers started out realizing a lot of people (unfortunate and why the people could be taken easily) look at slabs and not the actual coin inside, so some of the earlier fake slabs had some pretty bad copies in them.
Common grading company shortcomings & resulting co$tly mi$take$ to collectors (using Kennedy No FG halves):
https://tinyurl.com/y7rksxu8

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Re: How to Authenticate slabbed coins? Weight?

#12 Unread post by bobber »

Quote: "... so some of the earlier fake slabs had some pretty bad copies in them."

I didn't know that. Thanks!

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Re: How to Authenticate slabbed coins? Weight?

#13 Unread post by JTCC »

Urrengoy wrote: Tue Oct 25, 2022 7:50 am
Urrengoy wrote: Sat Oct 22, 2022 4:32 pm To do this, you need to turn them into specialists, and they will be able to do all the checks. It is realistic to do this through the bank and other private entities.
After they recognize their authenticity, you will need to deal with the fact that they can be sold or exchanged. That way, you can make money with it. But this is not as fast as it may seem, so you should have patience. You may also wonder how to withdraw money from forex. Various services can help you with this task. So try out several options at once to find the most suitable one.
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Re: How to Authenticate slabbed coins? Weight?

#14 Unread post by Earle42 »

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Common grading company shortcomings & resulting co$tly mi$take$ to collectors (using Kennedy No FG halves):
https://tinyurl.com/y7rksxu8

How much squash would a sasquatch squash if a sasquatch would squash squash?

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