Need some help on a PCGS slab

[jtryka]

Hey all, I am looking at an 1874 double eagle on eBay and was concerned since 1 the hologram on the back is slightly crooked, and 2 the coin is coming from honolulu, which is as close to China as you can get and still be in the USA. Here is a link to the auction, if anything looks suspicious, let me know and I'll pull my bid, I tried to look for threads on what to look for in fake slabs, but couldn't find a specific threads and didn't have time to wade through 18 pages of threads on counterfeits, PCGS and Slabs.

 

1874 Double Eagle Auction

[MarkFeld]

The coin and the holder look OK to me.

[cmerlo1-migration]

For me, the biggest red flag would be that the seller's feedback is below 99.6%...that's just a personal threshold. The negatives are over a year old, and don't show up on toolhaus.org. The PCGS fake slabs coming from China now are the style with the barcode on the front and large hologram on the back, and the lettering and barcode are too tall on the label. The cert # checks out on this one, although they do on the fakes as well...I really don't see an issue with this one.

 

For me, if something doesn't look or feel right in an auction, I pass.

 

I'm not advising you whether to buy or pass- I'm just relaying what I see, and how I would react...

[jtryka]

Thanks guys, the coin looks fine to me, but with all the Chinese counterfeit paranoia lately I guess it got the best of me!

[MarkFeld]

Thanks guys, the coin looks fine to me, but with all the Chinese counterfeit paranoia lately I guess it got the best of me!

Jeff, I don't blame you in the least for being cautious. It's a shame that buyers have to worry about things like that, but sadly, it's a reality these days.

[James_OldeTowne]

I see no obvious problem with the slab, and the image portrays a nice coin.

[Oldtrader3]

Jeff, I also have never seen a hologram this far out of skew on a PCGS slab, it bothers me too. Pictures of coin look like a good Coronet double eagle but are not sharp enough to be sure of coin (my personal opinion). Hawaii is about 65% asian, mostly Japanese with some chinese of course. Clean Type II, double eagle in AU53 should be a $1400. coin in PCGS slab. Low price puts me off more than hologram, but I also am paranoid about gold lately. There are no "deals" in Type II, double eagles.

 

PCGS has pictures on site of counterfeit dollars only. They are behind the curve compared to NGC in detecting and announcing counterfeit asian coins and cert. numbers. In denial, as usual.

[Oldtrader3]

I can hardly tell from scans. Look at 1874 double eagle in Seigfried89's, Type II, 1866-76, Double Eagle Set. He has a good scan of 1874 coin. Stars on obverse look slightly off to me. However, I am very leery of cheap Type II from anywhere, particularly Ebay. This seller's (2) negs were for non-payment and no communication on bids that he won. Judge for yourself. Good luck.

 

Could be the picture, but laying a straight edge under the numbers on the cert. label, numbers are not straight. Cert number verifies ok.

[Elbesaar]

The cert. # is correct for the coin.

 

1874 Double Eagle in AU 53.

 

Holder looks okay to me.

[physics-fan3.14]

Thanks guys, the coin looks fine to me, but with all the Chinese counterfeit paranoia lately I guess it got the best of me!

 

Speaking of which, I just realized I hadn't seen Kevin (stinkycheese) around in a while. Anyone know what happened to him?

[jtryka]

Thanks for all your help guys, I didn't win it, so all's well that ends well I guess.

[Conder101]

While having the hologram that crooked is unusual, it is not unheard of. I would not condemn the slab just for that.