As reported last week, The Gold & Silver PAC held a reception on March 31st honoring Congressman Lamar Smith Republican of 21st Congressional District of Texas. Mr Lamar is Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Member of the House Homeland Security Committee and Member of the House Science Committee. Although Congressman Lamar was unable to attend due to a vote in the congress, his Cheif of Staff, Sean McLaughlin stood in to give those gathered a report on the Legislative Efforts to Stop Chinese Counterfeiting and Repeal 1099 Requirements.
Also at the meeting, David Hall, CEO of Collectors Universe/PCGS, briefly outlined how Chinese Counterfeit coins in fake PCGS holders are traded. He used the example of Burnsville Coin Company (dealer Barry Skog) who was sued by PCGS for selling counterfeit PCGS PCGS holders that were made to order from Chinese manufacturers. Skog never formally responded to the charges but rather sent a handwritten denial to the judge which was rejected as improper. Collectors Universe, based in Santa Ana, Calif., recently won a default judgment. Skog did not respond to a request for comment.
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Copyright © April, 2011
Chinese coin counterfeiting is a major problem that has been ignored by the Secret Service for years, and the quality of the fakes is steadily increasing. Clearly, if uncorrected the tsunami of fake Morgans, Peace, and Trade dollars plus many others will jeapordize the integrity of the coin collecting industry. See China’s Number One Counterfeiter for a look inside the illicit trade in fake US coins http://survivalus.blogspot.com/2010/12/chinas-number-one-coin-counterfeiter.html
Barry Skog is still out there and still taking unwitting collectors to the cleaners. I paid $535 for an 1885 PCGS slabbed US seated Liberty Half Dollar. He shipped a different date coin first and when I returned it seeking refund, he flatly ignored me. I finally threatened with going to the MN Atty Gen. He promptly responded, but not by sending my refund! He sent me a fake 1885 half in a fake PCGS holder. A real 1885 is somewhere out there under the same PCGS certification number, but it ain’t the one I got. This guy has had suits and judgments against him since 2010, can’t he be stopped?!