A Madison man who sold coins on eBay for several years until he suffered losses in commodity trading and gambling pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in connection with defrauding customers of $171,000. Between May 1 and Dec. 29, 2006, John E. Paul took payment from 24 customers for collectible coins he auctioned on eBay’s Web site without sending them their merchandise.

Paul, 51, had been a successful coin seller on eBay, listing coins under the registered name “badgerbay.” But by 2006, eBay began receiving numerous complaints about “badgerbay” not shipping purchased items and being nonresponsive to inquiries, Assistant U.S. Attorney Grant Johnson said.

The European Union’s executive arm, the Commission (EC), wants to allow member states to use a new weapon in the fight against fake euros: fake euros.

In an announcement made on Tuesday, the EC proposed a series of laws aimed at strengthening the authorities in the fight against forgery. The keystone of the package was a law obliging banks to check for fake euro coins and notes themselves.

But to make sure those checks are effective, the EC proposed a second law allowing banks to transport fake coins and notes themselves, so that their checking machines can learn to tell good money from bad. (more…)

By Michael Fazzari for Numismaster

One of the first things many authenticators look for on U.S. coins they examine is the presence of metal flow. This characteristic provides a good indication that the coin was made using dies. Forty or so years ago, this was virtually enough proof that a coin was genuine because at that time, most counterfeits were made by casting.

Even by the early 1970s, years after die-struck fakes had appeared, the majority of struck counterfeit coins showed little evidence of metal flow lines. In fact, most struck counterfeits of the day were similar to castings, having weak, mushy details.

It’s not that simple anymore. Authenticating a coin by metal flow alone is down-right ignorant. That’s because, over time, struck counterfeits began to show traces of flow lines, and even duplicated much of the die polishing lines found on genuine specimens. Today, there are many die-struck counterfeits that almost defy detection.