The seller of this coin:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=190027525555

has two others for sale, all extremely rare. What is especially interesting is that these same three coins, at least according to the photos, were just sold a few days ago. The 1751 double ducat brought $440 in a 'private' auction. (The seller also has hidden feedback, very suspicious for high-grade rare coins.) The $440 is less than 5 percent of its true value.

This has all the earmarks of a Ukrainian operation, where an old eBay account is hijacked and coins not owned by the seller are sold to unsuspecting buyers. The seller's ID is similar to others who have pulled this charade. Some of the terms have been literally translated from the Russian into English and have become meaningless in the process. In particular one of the three coins has "a stamp field," probably a mistranslation of "well-struck." This indicates that the sellers (who use 'gramme' rather than 'gram' as would normally be used in English) really know nothing about the coins they claim to own.

RWJ

Defrauding the public with photos of coins not actually owned by using a hijacked ebay account seems to be a popular scam these days. There's certainly enough odd about the auction you cite to raise the hairs on the back of my neck.

Thanks for the heads up!

The seller's feedback score of 94.7% speaks for itself.

Feedback Score: 17
Positive Feedback: 94.7%
Members who left a positive: 18
Members who left a negative: 1
All positive feedback received: 18

One negative might not be particularly significant. It could be a retaliatory negative. Unfortunately, we don't know, because the "seller" has chosen to make the feedback comments private (which does little to inspire confidence).

I hope the "lucky winner" will be able to get at least some of his money back if, for some mysterious reason, no coin is ever received.

Seller of fakes. Offers return for those who will recognize the fake as soon as takes it into the hands. But if not (due to little experience), then ... will leave him positive feedback I guess and will find out later, when will be too late.

The same seller has now posted another coin, equally interesting. The eBay number is

190027941627

but for some reason it does not always appear. It is a three-day 'private' auction.

This exact coin (a 1704 rouble) was sold by Gelos (www.gelos.ru) on March 18, 2006, lot 23; it brought $22,000 plus buyer's fees. This seller now offers it for only $1590, which has to be a 'bargain.'

It is interesting to note that the Gelos description is simply transliterated by the eBay seller and not translated for the words "Orel [Eagle of] 1705."

The March 2006 Gelos auction has been a favorite source of photos for Ukrainian 'sellers' on eBay.

eBay has been notified and it will be interesting to see if they actually do something.

RWJ

Would be good if e-bay takes him down. There are many sellers of fakes of Russian coins on e-bay. Many from Russia/Ukraine/Belarus but some are from Canada/Australia and even U.S. E-bay should deal with this, but I am afraid they have too little people to promptly react.

The seller slips up by first quoting $20 for postage to the U.S. ($10 to Europe) and then later saying $10 to the U.S. The seller is therefore almost certainly in Eastern Europe, probably Ukraine but perhaps Belarus. Russia is less likely. The Wire Transfer payment method is rare for genuine U.S. sellers.

The three gold coins offered by this seller all have bids.

RWJ

You are probably right about the Canadian seller of fakes but the 'Australian' seller actually lives in Belarus and has used at least two different eBay names. (He has been reported to eBay which has, of course, done nothing.) The 'Canadian' seller may live across the border in Washington State rather than British Columbia, however.

As to eBay having too few workers that is merely a matter of greed rather than good business; their net profit the first quarter of 2006 was something like a quarter billion U.S. dollars which is enough, one would think, to hire a few extra employees to check on complaints.

RWJ

The most unfortunate...

The only solution for e-bay is to delegate ability to remove this kind of listings to knowledgable people (may be 2-3 opinions of authorized people needed before removal).

will not work...

The source of these photos has now been found: the Gelos monthly auction of November 2003; the most important coins from this auction are still posted on the Gelos website.

RWJ

May be that guy purchased it there back then?

The problem is not how to warn everyone not to bid for those 3 coins, but how to eliminate this kind of fraud completely. E-bay must do something about it, if not then sooner or later e-bay will be flooded with all sorts of fraudulent sellers from around the globe.

Ebay needs to monitor dormant IDs that suddenly become active. All of the IDs used for selling 'pictures' of coins are normally stolen and have not been used in years. I read somewhere that these are sold by hackers for $10-$20. For now we need to report fraud to Ebay when we see it, as it does help.

Several new counterfeits are for sale on eBay by the same seller, including the following:

http://cgi.ebay.com/nsw-leipzig-Russia-Pol...1QQcmdZViewItem

All of his pieces marked "novodel" are modern fakes but he does offer several genuine pieces.

RWJ

I think this seller is probably OK -- maybe he would appreciate it if you informed him directly about the fakes.

Another counterfeit for sale on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Russian-Silver-Coin-Po...1QQcmdZViewItem

The seller indicates that he knows nothing about Russian coins and will not guarantee authenticity. This coin (same dies) was published as a fake in Newsletter No. 17 of the Russian Numismatic Society, spring 2006.

RWJ

Agree on the assessment that it's a counterfeit.

This offering on eBay bears close scrutiny. It is hard to believe that a genuine coin of this type would be for sale in this manner. Moreover, the seller has had no eBay activity since late 2005 and then only as a buyer, not seller. Another warning sign is the private auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/24-karat-solid-Gold-Ru...1QQcmdZViewItem

RWJ

Another fake even though the seller states that it is an original:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1725-Sun-Rubel_W0QQite...1QQcmdZViewItem

The seller has been notified and it will be interesting to see if the coin is withdrawn from sale.

RWJ

And on top of it all, the story!!!! This is the first. Tzar gave it to the looser's grand-grand-father in an NGC holder :-) If a guy knows enough to slab it, he would probobly know the approximate value. Now, it would have to be wagered at a $15,000 value at least. You would think that the guy sitting opposit to him would pay more attention to what it was and why it was worth so much... Otherwise, I wonder what are the stakes in that poker game

I highly suspect that this is a hacked eBay account.

I have sent a message to the seller informing them what the coin is really worth, as well as my suspicion that the winner of this auction will never see an e-mail from the seller afterwards (much less this coin!) and hopefully, the rightful owner of the account will receive the message and do something about it.

The fact that the seller only accepts "bank wire transfer", yet is registered in Texas, is very suspicious to me. If they really knew what the coin is worth, then yes, maybe that would be a reason to accept wired funds only. OTOH, they claim to have won it in a poker game, so why wouldn't a check do? It costs about $50 to wire funds (appro. $1,000) from an account in the USA to Switzerland; I can't imagine that it would be that much cheaper to wire it within the USA.

I've asked a question of this seller, just to see who and how will be responding back. My question was about being able to get a better picture. Here is the reply I received:

Hi, yes it's Ok for me.
kind regards,
Edward

Seems like some kind of generic answer to any question he gets. So they want to make it seem real by at least responding.

The slab of 37 1/2 Rubles is faked out, and this makes it the most dangerous. People mostly trust NGC and someone can buy the coin in the slab. If there are some NGC authorized dealers on this board you will be able to check my words by entering to your NGC dealer's account and do a certification look up. You will see that this particular slab number belongs to a real 37 1/2 Rubles (real coin owner was a well known dealer in California). However, that particular coin was Prooflike and NGC gave it designation PL, i.e should be MS-61PL on the slab. This fake coin in a faked slab here is not Prooflike and there is no PL designation. Also this coin should be in a newer NGC slab since was graded less than 2 years ago, and fake is in the very old slab. By making up a fake slab also the edge of the coin was hidden from inspection (the edge has the most distinguishable features that allow to spot a fake). Beware!

WCO

Thank you, WCO. If you are an NGC dealer, or know someone who is, please tell NGC about this -- maybe they can get eBay to pull the auction, or get rid of the seller, where we mere mortals cannot!

That slab's definately not right. The fonts and sizes of the description are off.

Reported to NGC and EBay.

Q: So did e-bay do anything about it?
A: Yes, they did. Collected a few hundred of $$ of final value fees?

Dear WCO,

I'm not sure why you're so negative on all the issues.
Stay positive and other people will like you.

As to the Ebay and NGC reporting, I can say only that this is a legal procedure that has to be done. You'll see that some steps will be taken to prevent this from happening in the future.
Will it happen again? Absolutely! But we ALL need to fight.
Best regards.

For sale again. Looks previous "buyer" was a shill.

http://cgi.ebay.com/24-karat-solid-Gold-Ru...1QQcmdZViewItem

Now he has another item for sale:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=280032623037

It is becoming more and more interesting...

He calls himself "a dealer for many years" selling the banknote but that he does not "know much 'bout it, but ... was told it is pretty valuable" - selling the coin.

The auction has been stopped by Ebay.
Here is a part of the email I received from them, since I asked this seller a question through Ebay:

Our records indicate that you recently sent an email to or received an email from frpope through the eBay email system (for example, you may have sent an email to this member through Ask Seller a Question or received an email from this member through Contact eBay Member).

Sometimes eBay accounts are used to send email solicitations for transactions outside of eBay, or to send unrelated questions in hopes that you will respond so that the other party can obtain your email address. We wanted you to be aware of the potential fraud risk these solicitations pose and encourage you to be cautious about the email you received from this member.
.........
If you have already sent the item or sent payment for the item, please reply to this email and we will send you additional information about how to protect yourself.

Regards,

eBay Trust & Safety