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Okay, so here's the scenario. You run across a Chinese faked 90% coin. It doesn't weigh right, or you can see a tinge of brass
just beginning to peak through the silver... plus it thuds when you drop it, rather than the sweet ping of a real silver coin.
Maybe you can't afford the fancy Precious Metals Verifier... but you're pretty danged sure it's a fake.

I would like to think no one here would pass it off as real (silver-bearing content) to an unsuspecting member... and that's not
what this poll is looking to determine.

But who would spend it back into change, rather than just destroy it or throw it away? Is a brass-centered fake any less valuable
for mercantile exchange than a clad half? Whaddya think?

Ray, are you off your meds?

My local Wal-Mart only takes American coins and EBT cards. No Chinese Pesos accepted.

Oh yeah,

I do it all the time. Sometimes I can sneak 10-15 china halves in a roll and just pass it right off.
In fact that is what I'm doing now, this time quarters, as long as the rolls weigh right BAMM! you get paid!

You've already gotten screwed. Why cause trouble to anyone else by passing it off, ...just to save 50 cents!?

Plus, I'd, at that point, rather keep it. As an example to have in my own collection.

A riddle that is more likely to stump many more 'good folks' is this:
You win the lottery, and spend $30,000 of it on a rare PCGS certified gold coin. You buy it from your local coin store that you have dealt with many times before.
Five years later after spending all of your riches on Cheetos and expensive IMAX movie viewings, you are on hard times and decide to sell off your 'damn expensive' gold coin.

However, your current lical coin store owner has one of those new finagled fancy P.m. verifiers. And he has the fancy wands that can test it through the plastic slab. And lo and behold it comes back is 18 karat. Proving that it is not the rare coin is supposed to be, but an old counterfeit.

Would you try to find another coin store or rich 'sucker' to pass it off to? Or throw it up on eBay?

I mean, that 'honest' coin store owner screwed you. And it looks real? Why not let someone else bear the burden of PCGS's and the LCS's terrible mistake??

So there, on hard times, would you accept the burden of a $30,000 fraud?

If it's a genuine PCGS slab, then the coin is guaranteed by PCGS, and they will pay you "current market value" if you resubmit the coin under the guarantee and they find it to be a fake.

Back in 2010 I mixed 500 Canadian zinc pennies with 2000 Lincolns and dumped them into a Coinstar and got away with it--felt pretty good about it actually

pennypicker wrote:Back in 2010 I mixed 500 Canadian zinc pennies with 2000 Lincolns and dumped them into a Coinstar and got away with it--felt pretty good about it actually

Gangsta!

Could be a real dic and drop it in the Salvation Army Kettle

hobo finds wrote:Could be a real dic and drop it in the Salvation Army Kettle

Yeah, that would be cold!

Actually that brings up an interesting idea. Has anyone ever gone to the Salvation Army and offered to pay them a nominal amount for their junk? I'm curious how this worked out if you did.

Thogey wrote:Oh yeah,

I do it all the time. Sometimes I can sneak 10-15 china halves in a roll and just pass it right off.
In fact that is what I'm doing now, this time quarters, as long as the rolls weigh right BAMM! you get paid!

In all candor. I believe it is my responsibility to deface or destroy all counterfeits that pass through my hands.

I would seriously hope all y'all think the same.

I have a few pretty good fakes, and they are stashed to camouflage and hide real coins. If the thief finds them my hope is they won't look further.

coppernickel wrote:I have a few pretty good fakes, and they are stashed to camouflage and hide real coins. If the thief finds them my hope is they won't look further.

Now there's a great reason for keeping them!

I have cooked close to $30 face value in fake pre-33. (real gold fake coin) Mostly $2.5 indians and a couple $3 princesses. I have 2 quarter eagles waiting to be cooked right now.

So no.....I would not spend a fake coin.

coppernickel wrote:I have a few pretty good fakes, and they are stashed to camouflage and hide real coins. If the thief finds them my hope is they won't look further.

I have fakes that I use as decoys as well.

Interesting thread. I have a small town North of me that uses them Chucky tokens for getting water from the town. They are $10 each and I see you guys sell them for little and always think that a dink could maybe get a bunch of cheap water. One could do that and cost everyone else the opportunity of having a supply of water.

All US coins are counterfeit anyway so why not add one more.

Just set the fakes aside. And sell it later in a counterfeit collection. *edit*(labeled as a fake coin, not in a real coin set to fool people).

C'mon Ray. You know I'm not going to incriminate myself! I used to have a very real looking fake that was a gift from someone, and I knew it was fake, but gave it to someone else because I didn't even like having the thing around. I felt like it would only cast my existing stack under suspicion.

InfleXion wrote:C'mon Ray. You know I'm not going to incriminate myself! I used to have a very real looking fake that was a gift from someone, and I knew it was fake, but gave it to someone else because I didn't even like having the thing around. I felt like it would only cast my existing stack under suspicion.

Hey, the poll is anonymous