Fake coins struck in China have bedeviled the hobby for years. Colleague Colin Bruce of the Standard Catalog of World Coins staff used to acquire many of the fakes as they arrived on the scene to study them and figure out their defects.

The current wave is probably too much even for him to keep up with, but he sent me an e-mail link of a factory in China that is described as making fake U.S. and world coins.

Here is the link. Take a look at it and see what you think.

http://coins.about.com/od/worldcoins/ig/Chinese-Counterfeiting-Ring/Chinese-Fake-Coin-Minting.htm

The situation with fakes even provoked the Professional Coin Grading Service earlier this year to warn of fake coins and holders coming out of China and makl recommendations as to what should be done to counter this.

We all know the problems that are caused by fakes, but figuring out what can be done to fight them is something the hobby will wrestle with for years. Even if production were stopped right this minute, the large numbers of fakes would be passed around by people for many years to come.

Some day they will probably be collected as fakes once more complete knowledge about them becomes widespread.