Agents of this Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation and its own Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force report they helped federal law enforcement representatives with onsite numismatic expertise regarding over 40,000 imitation Morgan and Peace dollars, American Eagle silver bullion coins and Indian Head gold $2.50 coins which were captured from the Los Angeles region.
“The counterfeits were intercepted from abroad imports and captured through a yearlong joint investigation by the Secret Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” clarified ACEF Anti-Counterfeiting manager Doug Davis who flew out of Dallas to California to aid researchers.
That’s where roughly 1,700 bundles of seized counterfeit coin imports were saved.
“There were many wheeled carts full of bundles that contained coins captured during the eight-week targeting performance. We had been advised that every package contained a mean of 27 to 32 coins, each one of these counterfeits,” Davis stated.
“The caliber of the countless counterfeits we examined varied from good to really good, particularly the silver Eagles,” Minshull said. “It seems that the fakes we found likely were created by three distinct counterfeit manufacturers. If they had been real, the retail value of the 40,000-plus coins could be over $2 million”
Davis reported the similarities involving ACEF/ACTF, the Secret Service and Customs and Border Protection”provided invaluable intelligence data that supports our job at exposing the widespread proliferation of counterfeit coinage and valuable metals in the U.S. market. Most of all, the success of the surgery provides us with proof to keep on teaching the higher-up government within Secret Service, Customs, and Border Protection and other law enforcement agencies concerning the rising problem of counterfeits.”
This is but one of several instances during the previous 12 months where ACTF has supplied numismatic experts to help Secret Service and other Federal law enforcement agencies on bogus instances stretching across the USA, according to the ACEF.
“ACEF is playing an significant role in aggressively identifying bogus makers, organized groups, people, e-commerce, and societal platforms selling fake coins and precious metals” Since Davis highlighted,”the pros and resources ACEF has at its disposal to help state, local, and federal agencies throughout the investigative procedure” are most significant to improve”expeditious indictments and prosecution”
The Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation (www.ACEFonline.org) and its own volunteer task force depend entirely upon the support of this numismatic profession along with the hobby community.