Fake PCGS Slab Diagnostics

When dangerous fake PCGS slabs hit the coin collecting marketplace in March of 2008, PCGS refused to release the diagnostics that would enable the average collector to protect himself from these fake PCGS slabs, using the excuse that they didn't want to educate the counterfeiters about what they were doing wrong. My readers debated slab authentication diagnostics in May 2008.

Although photos of alleged fake PCGS holders floated around the Web for awhile, the images weren't good enough to teach us anything. We finally learned a little more when Scott A. Travers published fake PCGS slab photos he obtained from PCGS in the 6th Ed. of his Coin Collector's Survival Manual.

I took the photos from Travers' book and showed them to my Chinese counterfeiting contacts, one of whom kindly marked the diagnostics on the photos for you. So much for PCGS' excuse about educating the counterfeiters! The counterfeiters themselves are the source of the diagnostics I present here!