I bought a fake coin on eBay. On purpose. ONly paid just over $10USD for it.
It's a 1911-B Great Britain Trade Dollar. Or at least it pretends to be. Came from China. Price was WAY too low for a coin in that condition. The grading service label is blurry. All the classic tells were there before I clicked buy.
That's exactly why I wanted it.
I figured every collection needs an example of a counterfeit. So I bought this one to add to mine. You can read about counterfeits all day but holding one in your hand teaches you something different. The weight and feel. The details that aren't quite right. And this one was obvious. I am no expert in counterfeits by any means, so lets not go there. I just no enough red flags to have picked this one out.
Plus it's a good conversation piece. Pull it out and ask someone if they can spot what's wrong with it. Most people can't at first glance. That's the point. The fakes are getting better. If you're not paying attention, you'll get burned without even knowing it.
I paid almost nothing for it. I knew exactly what I was getting. No surprises. No refund request. Just a cheap education sitting in my collection which will become my youngest sons sometime in the future when I am dead and cold.
If you're collecting anything with value, you should probably own at least one fake. Not because you got scammed, or maybe so. Because you chose to learn from one before someone else chooses for you.
Anyone else keep counterfeits in their collection on purpose or am I the weird one?
If you have any further information about this coin you would like to add or want to correct any I may have gotten wrong, please drop it in the comments.
Thanks for reading,
Joe
Notes:
-All content is mine unless otherwise annotated.
-Images are my own unless otherwise noted.
-Photos edited using MS Paint and/or iPhone SE.
-Page Dividers from The Terminal Discord.