Tips to Avoid Buying a Fake Coin From Internet Auctions

In the business of coin collecting, there are plenty of counterfeit coin dealers and every so often, a genuine coin collector can fall prey to inauthentic coins. Dealing with a coin dealer directly can reduce the risk that you might face in terms of fake coins, but the truth is that the same isn’t true if you are buying coins at internet auctions.

Here are some tips that will help you to not only avoid buying a fake coin for a large sum of money, but also put these counterfeiters out of business:

Tip #1: Avoid buying coins from Chinese sellers.

The first thing that you must do when buying coins at internet auctions is to see which country the owner of the coin belongs to. If they are from Hong Kong or China, do not bid on the coin, no matter how appealing the ‘deal’ seems. According to experts, almost 90 percent of counterfeiters come from China or Hong Kong and you should avoid buying coins from them at all costs. If the seller is not from China or Hong Kong, confirm that the people that they do business with are not from these countries either!

Tip #2: Don’t buy a ‘raw’ coin for more than $50.

The definition of a raw coin is a coin that is not authenticated or graded by the NGC or PCGS, which are standards set in place to evaluate rare coins.  Photographs on eBay or any other internet auction isn’t enough to tell you whether the coin in question is indeed real or fake, and so you should always look for a top service grading holder, which holds the coin in question when making a purchase over the internet.

Tip #3: Always use a credit card.

No matter whether you want to purchase gold bullion or rare coins, always remember to transact with a credit card and not Paypal, debit cards, or the like. The reason for this is that you can get your money back far more easily with a credit card in case the coin turns out to be a fake one.