By Jack D. Young, from the Dark Side. Preamble by CoinWeek

“As if the Chinese counterfeit coins in fake PCGS slabs isn’t bad enough, now there appears to be a fake Chinese PCGS website to verify them….” Jack Young

On December 20th, Jack Young posted another of his now-infamous and critical “Fun with Fakes” posts to the PCGS Message boards titled “The Trifecta, CN Counterfeit Coin, Slab and Website ! – Collectors Universe”.

Jack has been in the forefront of exposing and reporting these fraudulent coins and the sellers that proliferate across eBay.

After his post, Jack forwarded the information to CoinWeek so we could give the problem even more exposure.

But before we repost Jack’s findings, in the link above, we want to provide some additional context and backgound on the issues and the problem from CoinWeek’s perspective.

Chinese Counterfeit Coins Entering the Market

Over the past decade, mass production of counterfeit coins in China has escalated. Factories in places like Guangdong and Fujian provinces manufacture replica U.S. and world coins, often made of base metals but plated to mimic silver or gold.

These include Morgan Dollars, Trade Dollars, early U.S. gold issues, and even modern commemoratives.

Many are extremely deceptive, showing correct dates, mintmarks, and even simulated wear patterns.

Some are sold directly on Chinese e-commerce platforms such as AliExpress or Taobao, where they are openly labeled as “replica” or “souvenir,” but later resold internationally as genuine.

Counterfeit PCGS Holders (Slabs)

Counterfeiters have moved beyond coins, they are now replicating PCGS and NGC holders themselves.

These fake slabs are visually convincing, complete with holograms, barcodes, and QR codes.

The counterfeiters often copy valid certificate numbers from real PCGS-graded coins and print them on the fake labels. Or they print Fake Certificate numbers, that when scanned, the QR code leads to a fake PCGS website.

The Fake Verification site imitates the real one and displays fabricated verification data (as in this case that Jack uncovers).

Tell-tale signs:

Incorrect font alignment or slightly off-center text on the label.

Weak holographic seals or incorrect color shifting.

Barcodes or QR codes that redirect to “.cn” or imitation domains, rather than www.pcgs.com.

Fake PCGS Chinese Verification Sites

A particularly dangerous trend is the appearance of mirror-clone PCGS websites hosted in China.

These sites look identical to the genuine PCGS Cert Verification Page.

When a fake cert number is entered, the page returns a false confirmation with images of a real coin, a screenshot copied from the legitimate PCGS site.

The real PCGS site for verification is https://www.pcgs.com/cert/,  any domain other than pcgs.com is fake. (such as pcgs-cn.com, pcgsn.com, pcgs.cn, pcgsverify.cn, etc.)

The eBay Connection

eBay remains a major global marketplace for counterfeit coins.

Despite efforts, eBay is overwhelmed by the volume of listings, many from China-based sellers.

Counterfeits are often described as “reproductions,” “souvenir coins,” or listed in misleading categories to avoid detection.

Even worse, some sellers use fake PCGS holders to sell high-value “slabbed” coins, targeting collectors who assume authenticity based on the holder.

Collector Warnings:

• Always verify PCGS or NGC certifications directly on their official websites, never through links in the listing.
• Be cautious of prices significantly below market value or sellers located in China or Hong Kong.
• Prefer buying from PCGS Authorized Dealers or well-reviewed U.S.-based sellers.

Now on to Jack’s latest discovery.

Fun with Fakes- The Trifecta, CN Counterfeit Coin, Slab and Website!

As if the Chinese counterfeit coins in fake PCGS slabs isn’t bad enough, now there appears to be a fake Chinese PCGS website to verify them.

A friend alerted me to the following listing on the Bay this past week:

And here is a “Past eBay listed counterfeit in a counterfeit not-PCGS slab”

The listing included these interesting other images:

The seller had ended the listing based on being told it is a counterfeit, and I started a review to try to determine what was going on here!

So, I started with the “PCGS” slab and some quick checks. Using my on-line barcode scanner I checked the front barcode:

Like many similar bad slabs, the barcode was gibberish and would not scan. Next, I went to the PCGS website to check the noted cert number: 69025723

Note from the genuine PCGS site for the cert # look-up

And another bad sign, that cert # “was not found”. So, my next step was to try to read the reverse label QR code. And just a note, many of the previous counterfeits we have documented similar to this one had a QR code that read the cert # correctly but noted the genuine PCGS CN site. A previous example read like this:

Typical previous QR code to pcgs.cn site. And then this one:

Note different website for this cert!

Different result than expected I do NOT recommend readers going to the site shown, but if you did this is what comes up:

Fake “PCGS” site, image, etc.

WOW, now we have something apparently new to be concerned about with these…

I did notify my contacts at PCGS for a heads-up,  as well as posting this it on the CU Forum. My contacts at PCGS acknowledged they were now aware and reviewing.

I checked the fake site Christmas evening, and got a message that indicated the site was now unavailable!  Nice Christmas present if it lasts!

I did continue to dig a bit more and found the domain name Registrar for PCGSN.com  was Alibaba Cloud Computing LTD, dba HiChina (www.net.cn)  It seemed ironic the
“Registrar” has Alibaba in the name! Then I checked the Whois Record at https://www.whois.com/whois/pcgsn.com.   Shown below Is what I got.

Best, Jack