CHICAGO, April 23 (UPI) -- U.S. Customs officials in Chicago said they seized 361 counterfeit coins shipped from China that were replicas of 19th century silver trade dollars.
The coins were dated from 1873 to 1878, the Chicago Tribune reported Saturday.
The original coins were minted by the U.S. Treasury when there was a high demand for silver coins in China. The fakes seized at O'Hare International Airport this week were taken to a laboratory for testing and were found to be made of brass with a thin coating of silver, the newspaper said.
Authorities said they had alerted other customs stations to be on the lookout for similar shipments. An authentic trade dollar from that era can be worth as much as $2,000 to a coin collector.
No one has been charged with a crime, but officials said the man expecting the shipment called when the package did not arrive.
An investigation is continuing.
