Silver Rush Creates Silver Scams

Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation
warns of surge in fake “silver” coins
offered online

The recent panic buying of silver bullion has sparked a significant increase in fraudulent or misleading online advertising to lure unsuspecting retail buyers to purchase counterfeit United States silver dollars, according to officials of the Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation.

“The Chinese are blowing up the web selling fake silver dollars. We’ve seen suspicious ads posted on many platforms, including Amazon and Facebook,” cautioned Doug Davis, ACEF Anti-Counterfeiting Director./p>

“During the past couple of weeks, we received an increase in reports of counterfeits due to silver’s volatility and especially the ongoing interest in the Morgan silver dollars market. The Chinese are heavily marketing fake silver dollars via Facebook,” said Davis, a former Texas Police Chief.

“Remember, if you don’t know precious metals, you’d better know a reputable seller, such as experts affiliated with the Accredited Precious Metals Dealer program,” advised Davis.

Morgan dollars are named after their designer, George T. Morgan, and were struck by the United States Mint from 1878 to 1904 and again in 1921. Popular with collectors and investors, each coin contains about three-fourths of an ounce of silver.

“The crush of retail customers has slowed down a bit, but we’ve definitely seen ‘panic buying’ of silver the past couple of weeks. Unfortunately, some unsuspecting buyers are becoming victims of online scams by unscrupulous sellers,” said Richard Weaver, President of the Professional Numismatists Guild.

“Supplies of genuine, century-old Morgan silver dollars are extremely tight, but one suspicious seller on Facebook is offering to sell 28 ‘genuine’ Morgan dollars for only $199. If they actually were genuine coins, the price would be closer to $900. Even the certification holders housing their fakes appear to be counterfeits,” explained Weaver.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation is alerting the Secret Service about the fakes as part of the foundation’s ongoing assistance to federal, state, and local law enforcement as well as prosecutors to fight counterfeiting and the sales of counterfeit coins.

Numismatic Guaranty Corporation is the official authentication service for the foundation and its Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force. NGC is the world's largest third-party grading service for coins, tokens and medals, and is also the official grading service for the American Numismatic Association and the Professional Numismatists Guild.

“The important work of the foundation and the Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force is supported entirely by donations,” explained ACEF Executive Director Robert Brueggeman. “The ACEF is a 501(c)(3) corporation and all donations are tax deductible.”

For additional information, contact the Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation at 817-723-7231 or visit the website at https://acefonline.org.

The Bull & Bear Recommended Dealers

There are a number of highly reputable dealers selling precious metals and rare coins. But we cannot the stress the importance of dealing with a firm that is an active member of the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG), American Numismatic Association (ANA), Certified Coin Exchange (CCE) and Industry Council for Tangible Assets (ICTA), all of which help to protect the rights of coin collectors and investors.

Here are two firms that offer expertise, value and are dedicated to customer service that The Bull & Bear Financial Report recommends: American Gold Exchange and Liberty Coin Service.

Founded in 1998, American Gold Exchange (AGE) is a leading national precious metals and rare coin company specializing in dealer-to-dealer trading and direct sales to the public. AGE draws upon a huge supplier network in the U.S. and Europe. These long-term relationships enable us reliably to offer an almost limitless inventory of highest-quality gold, silver, platinum, and palladium coins and bars at extremely low prices.

In addition to buying and selling top-quality coins and bullion, AGE offer expert appraisals of individual coins and entire coin collections. For some of the best values available in U.S. gold coins, world gold coins, and bulk precious metals and live gold news visit American Gold Exchange. Liberty Coin Service, celebrating their 50th Anniversary, is Michigan’s largest rare coin and precious metals dealer. Liberty offers expert advice on buying and selling your rare coins and evaluating trends in the rare coin and precious metals marketplace. The firm also published Liberty’s Outlook, awarded Best Dealer Publication by the NLG for 2020, 2019, 2017 and 2016. The informative newsletter, edited by Patrick Heller, offers a monthly review of precious metals, numismatics and features current offers. For current price quotes, visit www.libertycoinservice.com.