Is the Hobby Protection Act enforced at all?

Zoins

I was just searching for Long Island half dollars to respond to a thread by @keets and ran across this as a featured Google result.

The description is straight forward and there is no pretense of being real.

• 1936 Long Island Silver Half Dollar Commemorative Coin Copy
• The Coin Is Copy.Best Quality
• Technique: Casting

https://www.ecrater.com/p/32825082/1936-long-island-silver-half-dollar

Here's the Google search results showing this in the featured results section. I don't know what "pcss" is but Google thinks it's important, so I clicked on it with the results below.

Apparently PCSS is Prestige Coin Slabbing Service. I'm surprised Google ranked PCSS higher than PCGS when I search for PCGS all the time and had never heard of PCSS.

cameonut2011

Forget about the HPA. Let's call the coin for what it is. It is a counterfeit. Unfortunately the counterfeiting statutes aren't readily enforced except in cases involving a large dollar amount of fraud. The HPA is also hardly ever enforced and most of it is done by private enforcement (lawsuits).

Gluggo

What state is Guangdong CN. at that is where the seller resides? Is that Connecticut?

Zoins

@Gluggo said:
What state is Guangdong CN. at that is where the seller resides? Is that Connecticut?

OMG. I missed that and had only saw they are shipping only to the US-Mainland.

Hemispherical

Guangdong
PROVINCE, CHINA

Guangdong, Wade-Giles romanization Kuang-tung, conventional Kwangtung, sheng (province) of South China. It is the southernmost of the mainland provinces and constitutes the region through which South China’s trade is primarily channeled. Guangdong has one of the longest coastlines of any province, fronting the South China Sea to the southeast and south (including connections to the two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau). It is also bounded by the Zhuang Autonomous Region of Guangxi to the west and by the provinces of Hunan and Jiangxi to the north and Fujian to the northeast. The capital is Guangzhou (Canton), at the head of the Pearl (Zhu) River Delta.

Bridge between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on the Chinese mainland.
Guangdong province, China.
Bridge between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on the Chinese mainland.
© Polartern/Shutterstock.com
Guangdong province, China.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Guangdong

Zoins

I wonder why this fake coin shows up so prominently in my Google search.

Hemispherical

Clear your browser cache and cookies.

Zoins

@Hemispherical said:
Clear your browser cache and cookies.

I'm wondering if they just naturally rank higher.

I just opened a browser in incognito mode and this came up as a featured result:

https://www.dhgate.com/product/hot-selling-1936-long-island-commemorative/387902797.html

AliExpress copies were in the 3 row down.

cameonut2011

@Zoins said:

@Gluggo said:
What state is Guangdong CN. at that is where the seller resides? Is that Connecticut?

OMG. I missed that and had only saw they are shipping only to the US-Mainland.

ME too. Don't feel badly.

Hemispherical

@Zoins said:

@Hemispherical said:
Clear your browser cache and cookies.

I'm wondering if they just naturally rank higher.

I just opened a browser in incognito mode and this came up as a featured result:

https://www.dhgate.com/product/hot-selling-1936-long-island-commemorative/387902797.html

AliExpress copies were in the 3 row down.

Using goog? Paid links get first page priority when searched.

ShadyDave

China is a scourge on this Earth and this is one of the many reasons why. How alibaba is allowed to be on the NYSE is beyond me. They sell and peddle counterfeit goods to the western world as their main business model. Hopefully President Trump is serious about cracking down on this shit:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-counterfeit/trump-orders-crackdown-on-counterfeit-sales-online-idUSKCN1RF1V7

Hemispherical

“Is the Hobby Protection Act enforced at all?“

To the question, I would say, yes, but it takes awhile to build a case so that it can be prosecuted in court. Going to court is not inexpensive.

Best option is reporting to organizations with a track record of involvement in helping to stop these crimes.

An example is: https://www.ictaonline.org/

thefinn

No, it isn't. And the world's biggest accomplice, eBay, doesn't seem to care as long as they get their cut.

Justacommeman

@Zoins said:

@Gluggo said:
What state is Guangdong CN. at that is where the seller resides? Is that Connecticut?

OMG. I missed that and had only saw they are shipping only to the US-Mainland.

I have an office in Guangdong . No I’m not taking requests

m

BillJones

It seems to a law with no teeth. How can there be so many Chinese counterfeits and no prosecutions? There has to be someone or a number of people who is importing these things into the country. Are they all “small fish” who aren’t worth prosecuting?

BTW that Long Island counterfeit is really ugly.

BStrauss3

@BillJones said:
It seems to a law with no teeth. How can there be so many Chinese counterfeits and no prosecutions? There has to be someone or a number of people who is importing these things into the country. Are they all “small fish” who aren’t worth prosecuting?

I suspect if you asked ICE and got an honest answer, it would be the allocation of resources. Takes the same effort to inspect a package of 100 counterfeit coins worth $300 as 100 counterfeit Rolex watches worth $10,000... and the seizure of "$1,000,000 worth of counterfeit watches" gets better press...