How to spot a counterfeit silver panda
by: poconopenn( 1069)
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Guide viewed: 1316 times Tags: China silver panda | counterfeit | bullion | coins | fake
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In the last few months, counterfeit 1 oz silver panda coins have flooded the US ebay, especially from the sellers located in China. During last few weeks, the counterfeit pandas also listed at ebay by a few US sellers. Most of those sellers may not even aware that they are helping to spread the counterfeit silver pandas in US. It becomes vital important to provide with some guidelines to spot the counterfeit China silver pandas.
Guidelines for coins and packages:
1. (Updated on 6/6/06, a quicker and easier way to spot a counterfeit pandas without pictures of the genuine coins) In order to prevent counterfeit, China Mints made few subtle changes in the obverse. The temple design was different for different dates. The circular rock fence on the both sides of stairway of temple have different number of posts for each row. For genuine coins, there are six posts in the bottom row for the period of 1983-1985, 5 posts for the period of 1987-1991, 4 posts for the period of 1992-2001, and 3 posts for the period of 2002-2006. All counterfeits, based on the pictures at ebay, have 3 or 4 posts in the first row. Starting 2002, drawings were added to the divider of the stairway in genuine coins, while the counterfeit coins had a smooth surface. In summary, those coins with 4 posts for years between 1983-1991 and 2002-2006 are counterfeit. Those coins with 3 posts for years between 1983-2001 are counterfeit. Those coins with 4 posts, between 1992-2001 may need further examination by comparing pictures with genuine coins as outlined in 3, 4, and 5. There are other design changes made by China Mints for different years, such as, the door to the temple and the number of the beams on top of the door. The counterfeit coins do not match those design changes.
2. The soft plastic pouch should be embossed with rope pattern on the sealed edges. Some, but not all, counterfeit coins have a flattened sealed surface and they are relatively easy to spot. There are different rope patterns for different China Mints. Shanghai Mint has a small and different rope styles vs. Shenyang Mint, while Shenzhen Guobao Mint has its name embossed on two sides of the pouch and the rope pattern is similar to the Shenyang Mint on the other two sides. Make sure the coin received is identical to the picture. There are counterfeit coins sealed in the embossed patterns similar to China Mints.
3. The position of the date on the obverse can be used to further identify the counterfeit coins. For genuine coins, at least two variations of date for BU coins between 1990 and 1999. Shanghai Mint usually has a small date and Shenyang Mint has a large date. The date of counterfeit coins usually is slightly off-position vs. genuine coins, using the stairway of the temple as guidepost.
4. In the majority of counterfeit coins, the 1 in 19xx and 2 in 200x are different from the genuine coins. The tapered tip of 1 in 19xx usually is longer for counterfeit coins vs. genuine for the years before 1990 with the exception of 1987. In 1987 coin, the 7 in 1987 is cured at top for genuine coin, while the counterfeit is straight 7.
5. For genuine coins during the period between 1992 to 1996, all 1 in 19xx are underlined (has a small baseline as part of 1). If you do not see the underlined 1, it is counterfeit. 4 in 1994 and 2004 are also have a underlined base for geniune coin, but not in the counterfeit coins. Unfortunately, if you are a new panda collector, you have no genuine coins to compare with. The websites of pandausa (including all varieties) and pandaamerican (better pictures, but no varieties) provide pictures of genuine coins of all dates. However, the ebay policy will not allow me to make direct link of these non-ebay sites in this guide.
6. Proof coins have a very low mintage, no more than 20,000 for each date, with the exceptions of 1987 and 1989. They do not have varieties for the same date, and therefore, it is relatively easy to spot the counterfeit by comparing the pictures.
7. Genuine 1983-1987 coins have characters on the plaque of the top floor of temple, while the counterfeit coins are blank. It should be noted that all counterfeit coins after 1987 have characters on the plaque, identical to the genuine coins.
8. Starting 2002, all silver pandas have a slanted reeding vs. a straight reeding for year prior to 2002.
9. The weight of double sealed 1 oz panda coin should be at least 38 gm for coin minted between 1987 and 1999, depending on the size and type of soft plastic pouch and hard plastic holder, with a exception of 1993. Weight of 1993 is slightly less then 38 gm due to the small size of hard plastic holder. Between 2000-2006, the harder plastic holder is thicker and, therefore, the weight is slightly higher, more than 39 gm. For 1983-1985, the coin itself should be 27 gm and usually not in the sealed plastic pouch. However, the counterfeit also weighs about 27 gm. Nevertheless, those counterfeit coins are relatively easy to spot. They have a longer tapered tip 1 in the dates. Some counterfeit coins actually weigh about 1 oz. Therefore, the weight of the package can not be used exclusively as the determine factor of the genuineness of the coin. However, if your double sealed coin is weighted less than the weight specified above, it is most likely a counterfeit.
General guidelines:
1. Fixed price is lower than the actual silver value and the S/H charge is extremely high.
2. Seller ID is kept in private and they usually have a low feedback number. The scammer can create feedback and good rating for themself by buying a few inexpensive items, usually non-coin items.
3. Item picture is vague and does not show both sides of the coin.
4. The counterfeit panda coins from China, sometimes, come with a COA issued by a private company. There are official COAs issued by Governor of the Bank of China for proof coins for each year with a statement of mintage and year, in Chinese and English. There is no official COA for BU pandas as suggested by those counterfeit coin sellers.
Hopefully this guide will help you to spot the counterfeit pandas before the bidding and save you the time and energy in trying to recover the loss from the sellers after the winning of a counterfeit panda. The observation made herein is based on the pictures of the counterfeit coins at ebay. There is a very good chance that new batch of counterfeit coins may be different from the current counterfeit. So, do the research carefully before bidding.
Final note, the mintage of pandas are very low vs. other bullion coins. The price is still very low and affordable. Because of their popularity among coin collectors, the pandas become the target of counterfeit, just like US silver trade dollars many years back. If you do the research carefully, you still can find the genuine coins at a very reasonable price. Good luck in your search for genuine pandas.
For disclosure purpose, I have no personal and financial connection to pandausa and pandaamerican mentioned above. I bought few China coins (not panda) from these companies more than 10 years ago.
Guide ID: 10000000000966183Guide created: 05/21/06 (updated 08/15/06)
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