Chinese counterfeit coins are flooding international Internet shopping platforms and are affecting the U.S. financial markets, with the Chinese Communist Party profiteering from them, U.S. antiquities expert Mike Fuljenz wrote on Wednesday (April 21). And this issue is not yet on most people’s radar.
A translation of the Fullintz article follows.
Despite assurances of a crackdown on counterfeit goods and intellectual property imported from China, Communist China continues to profit billions of dollars from the sale of counterfeit goods, and an area of the U.S. economy that many are currently unaware of is being impacted.
Multiple studies have shown that the daily tide of counterfeit goods from China’s many ports of entry or ports of mail has barely abated significantly. While most public attention is focused on tennis shoes, luxury watches, handbags, clothing, cosmetics, cell phones and computer software, there is also a direct attack on the financial markets by affecting the coin industry.
Over the past few years, I have reviewed several clients’ coin collections and have regrettably detected one or more counterfeit coins. In one instance, one person’s collection consisted mostly of forged one-ounce buffalo gold coins, all of which looked like they were sold by the genuine Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC). But the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation itself is the fraudster.
Millions of properly circulated U.S. coins, such as the 25-cent and 50-cent pieces, as well as bullion and rare collectible coins, have now been counterfeited in China. Recently, U.S. law enforcement agencies seized over a million dollars worth of counterfeit George Washington quarters. Washington quarter coins that are believed to have been manufactured in China.
The issue of Chinese-made counterfeits has been sporadically reported in the national news. Here are three examples.
Counterfeit goods are the world’s largest criminal industry, surpassing illegal drugs or human trafficking, Forbes reported in 2018. By 2022, it is expected to grow to $2.8 trillion and result in the loss of 5.4 million U.S. jobs.
In a 2016 interview on CBS’s Money Watch titled “China’s Biggest Export Boom: Fake Gold Coins,” Kathy Kristof interviewed a number of experts, including myself, about the proliferation of counterfeit Chinese coins sold on the Internet. The problem.
Craig Crosby, founder of The Counterfeit Report, has found millions of counterfeits on online sales sites such as eBay, Alibaba, Amazon and Walmart. He says more than 80 percent of all counterfeit products are made in China.
Earlier this month, Major League Baseball (MLB) extended a deal with Tencent, one of Communist China’s largest technology companies, to stream MLB games in China. This is the same company that helped limit freedom of speech for the Chinese and created a mobile game, Applause for Xi Jinping: Awesome Speech, to show support for dictator Xi Jinping.
This demonstrates Major League Baseball’s hypocrisy about human rights, a move that comes as it pulls out of the Atlanta All-Star Game as Georgia passes new voting requirements that help ensure fairer and safer elections. Incredibly, the All-Star Game moved to Denver, Colorado, where voting restrictions are stricter and less diverse.
Florida Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio tweeted on April 2, “Dear Republicans: MLB is pressuring to pull the draft and All-Star Game out of Georgia, while announcing a deal with a company backed by the genocidal Chinese Communist Party in the same week.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Crewshaw of Texas also questioned President Biden’s support for the 2022 Beijing Olympics, saying in a tweet, “Hey Joe Biden, are you boycotting the Beijing Olympics because of genocide? Or do you just want to hurt the small Atlanta businesses that are planning the all-star games?”
Wish, the online sales platform that sources most of its products from China, is known to be filled with counterfeit products. But the Los Angeles Lakers accepted $36 million (less than LeBron James’ annual salary) in exchange for a large “Wish” logo on the Lakers’ uniforms for three years. This is the kind of thing a league does that seems to discourage players or executives from criticizing the CCP, including humanitarianism and slave labor, or opposing the CCP dictatorship that has stripped Hong Kong of its democracy, and the CCP’s mistreatment of the Uighur people.
Of course, the moves of the Chinese Communist regime do not reflect on the many fine Chinese-Americans and their families, some of whom are friends of mine.
I have taught counterfeit detection courses for the American Numismatic Association and served on the National Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force. Over the past two years, my colleague Jerry Jordan has ordered many coins and bullion from the Wishes platform. Thankfully, they were very inexpensive, but all were obvious counterfeits from Chinese suppliers and delivered by the U.S. Post Office. Among the many test orders, there are several examples.
There was a “Credit Suisse 1 oz gold bar” for $2 plus $3 shipping. When he ordered it, it was originally worth $1,500, and today it is worth almost $1,900, but because it is a fake, it is practically worthless. He also ordered an 1899 Queen Morgan Silver Dolar, XF (Extra), valued at $140 and shipped for only $3.89. The forged coin was listed for free. He then ordered a gold coin that, if genuine, would have been worth $10 million, a 1933 St. Clair. Gaudens Double Eagle, but it sold for only $1.83 plus $2.00 for shipping, so you can’t accuse them of being greedy. They chose some very valuable coins and then sold knock-offs at ridiculously low prices. However, none of the fake coins had the word “_COPY” on them, which is a requirement for counterfeit goods under the latest U.S. Hobby Protection Act of 2014.
On March 2, 2020, H.R. 6058 (known as the “Store Safety Act of 2020”) was introduced in the House of Representatives, which would amend the Trademark Act of 1946 to make certain e-commerce platforms co-responsible for selling counterfeit goods that pose a health risk to consumers. The key word here is “health risks” and does not appear to cover coins and other important goods, although some counterfeit coins and precious metals from China contain traces of cyanide that could pose a significant health risk.
Counterfeit products can claim American lives as an indirect health risk or cause machines to malfunction at high speeds, which can lead to sudden death. The FAA estimates that 520,000 counterfeit or unapproved parts are installed on aircraft each year, and U.S. military aircraft are reportedly “flooded with counterfeit parts,” about 70 percent of which come from China.
But beyond that, I think it should cover almost all of the incredibly counterfeit products. Last year, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation purchased dozens of products at random from common online platforms such as Wish, AliExpress, Amazon, eBay and Walmart.
They found counterfeit products on all of these platforms, and more than half of the products purchased were fakes.
Some of the health dangers include alarming levels of heavy metals in health and beauty products. A single lipstick contains 751 times the amount of lead that Health Canada considers acceptable in cosmetics. As scientists say, lead can affect a person’s cognitive abilities and is especially dangerous for children.
The experts CBC spoke to were not only concerned about health issues related to counterfeiting. Lorrie Turner, legal counsel and senior vice president of brand protection for headwear brand New Era Cap Co, told CBC, “All of this money was immediately and illegally used to support other criminal activities. While you might think it was just individuals trying to make money, ultimately all the money was used for nefarious things.”
Interpol states on its website, “There is a clear link between illicit trade and other types of crime, such as human trafficking, drug trafficking, corruption, bribery and money laundering.”
To that end, leaders in the numismatic industry need to work hard to get the bill amended and reintroduced in 2021 to cover counterfeit coins, most of which are manufactured and delivered from China. Specifically, we would like to see a reference to the Hobby Protection Act, which was amended in 2014 to cover counterfeit coins.
Recent Comments