Coin collectors are being warned of a substantial increase in numbers of counterfeit Canadian coins that are surfacing on the Internet at coin shows across the nation.
On Feb. 1, RCMP launched a counterfeit Canadian coin web site called Share at http://counterfeitcoins.bc.rcmp.ca. to promote public awareness around detection of counterfeit Canadian coins.
In particular, coin collectors can learn how to detect counterfeit coins by studying the examples on the RCMP web site which will be updated with the recent counterfeit coins circulating in Canada and abroad.
Examples include the King George V1 1948 silver dollar in which the fake coins have blunders on the number eight and the second L in the word dollar.
In the King Edward series the 1925 nickel has extra curl at the end of the five and the date on the 1926 quarter is too large.
Police say during the past two years sellers from Asia have been using eBay to sell replicas of rare Canadian coins dating back to the early 1900s.
In co-operation with police, eBay has removed all current listings from the Canada and USA sites, but a substantial number of fake coins are already in private collections have already made their way into private collections, which is another reason it is important for people to be aware of this web site, said Sgt. Tony Farahbakhcian the RCMP Pacific Region Counterfeit Coordinator, who has been studying Canadian coins for the past 10 years.
He believes the problem is directly related to the level of sophistication used by overseas manufacturers of fake coins and the ease at which they are being sold over the internet.
Farahbakhchian can be contacted by e-mail at: tony.farahbakhchian@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
