China Battles Domestic Counterfeiters

By Richard Giedroyc, World Coin News

October 19, 2009

The Peoples’ Republic of China has been in the numismatic hobby news in recent months due to coin replicas originating from China that are being sold elsewhere in the world as genuine coins. This includes coins of Canada, Russia and the United States.

Since the Hobby Protection Act in the United States is unenforceable outside U.S. borders, this lack of enforcement overseas almost invites the export of replica coins to places where the replica coins can be sold by third parties to unsuspecting collectors as being genuine. In an article appearing in this column last month coin collector Mike Marshall of Trenton, Ontario, was acknowledged as saying there are six companies in China that make replica coins. The Chinese replica products are produced and sold legitimately – in China.

Well, it appears China may be having problems of its own regarding locally produced counterfeit or replica coins. In fact, since China has been one of several countries that in recent years has suffered from a shortage of circulating coinage it appears at least one enterprising organization working outside the government has decided to take advantage of the shortage by making its own coins.

According to the Aug. 6 Guangzhou Daily newspaper, police in Foshan in south China’s Guangdong province arrested seven people a day earlier, seizing more than 220,000 counterfeit 1-yuan coins reported to weigh a total of about 1.5 tons.

The 1-yuan denomination, which is the workhorse coin of the Chinese economy, is a nickel-plated steel coin with a diameter of 24.9 millimeters. The obverse depicts the denomination and date, while a chrysanthemum appears on the reverse. The lettered edge repeats RMB three times.

RMB is an abbreviation for renmimbi or “people’s currency,” which is issued exclusively by the People’s Bank of China. The official abbreviation is CNY, but it does not appear on circulating coinage.

According to the Guangzhou Daily newspaper article, “A woman named Liu and her driver were stopped by police when they were seen behaving suspiciously around a Foshan bus station on June 26. The police then seized 18,000 counterfeit 1-yuan coins at the scene and captured a buyer with 1,100 such counterfeit coins. Following the seizure, the police raided Liu’s home in Guangzhou and found 200,000 more counterfeit 1-yuan coins wrapped in packages.”

The newspaper reported the fake coins originated in Loudi in Hunan province (central China). The counterfeiting operation does not appear to be an isolated incident. According to the newspaper, more than 20 people possessing 1.17 million counterfeit 1-yuan coins were arrested in Loudi in July. In addition “five fake coin plants” were raided in Loudi.

This isn’t the only recent incident suggesting China is having internal problems with counterfeit coins. The Aug. 10 issue of the publication China View reported, “China’s Public Security Ministry Monday warned the public to beware of fake commemorative coins purportedly issued to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.”

Specifically, a set of 100- and 150-yuan gold coins and four 10-yuan .999 fine silver coins being advertised as having been issued by the People’s Bank of China and distributed by China Gold Coin Inc. are fakes since neither organization has issued any such coins.

China View reported the unauthorized commemorative coins being sold for 550 yuan or $80 US on the Web site www.taobao.com originating in Hebei Province.

Sounding very much like what you might expect to hear from the U.S. government if a similar situation happened in the United States the Chinese ministry warned, “Precious metal commemorative coins should only be purchased through formal channels