The situation we're in now with counterfeit slabs flooding the market from China is serious.

I've been reading over the last year about the flood of counterfeit coins coming out of China. To make matters worse, they are getting better and better at counterfeiting not just the coins, but the NGC and PCGS holders (slabs) as well.

I don't understand how the Canadian government can crack down on EBay, where many of these counterfeits are sold, yet the US government doesn't do a damn thing. And all this time, EBay apparently has turned a blind eye to the sale of counterfeit coins to their customers.

It might be a good idea to organize the collectors on this forum to write to our congressional representatives to try to fight this plague. There are laws already on the books in the US that "replica" coins must carry the word "replica" or "copy" on them. The counterfeit coins from China, as has been documented in the numismatic press, are readily available without the required markings. When they're not marked, they're counterfeits, since they are intended to deceive.

The Canadian RCMP went after EBay. It's time the US Treasury Department and US Secret Service go after them, and the counterfeiters as well, before this situation gets worse. Any comments?

I sent an email to my congressman. Here's where you can find the name of your representatives:

http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/Legislative.shtml

(They'll probably be glad to get mail on something besides health care reform.)

BTW, my year old daughter thinks she has a way to tell a genuine NGC slab. See below. Too bad it doesn't work for PCGS.