The E-Sylum:  Volume 4, Number 24, June 10, 2001, Article 11

CHEN CHO-WEI 

   Dave Bowers reports: "I think there is a picture of Chen 
   Cho-Wei in a Bowers and Ruddy Galleries catalogue in 1961. 
   He was a "trader" in Hong Kong with whom Jim Ruddy spent 
   some time. " 

   Mike Hodder adds: "Here's some additional information 
   regarding Chen Cho-Wei that  most readers will not know. 
   This comes from Harvey Stack, who asked me to transmit it 
   on to E-Sylum subscribers. 

   In the early 60's, Stack's received some unsolicited packages 
   mailed from Hong Kong by Chen Cho-Wei.  Inside were 
   common date Indian Head Quarter Eagles, as well as Liberty 
   Head types from the end of the series, dated around 1899- 
   1907.  These packages were declared for U..S. Customs as 
   American gold coins and so were not subject to duties at the 
   time. When the first package was opened it was immediately 
   obvious to all that the Quarter Eagles were fakes.  Harvey 
   Stack contacted the Secret Service, who put Agent Al Wong 
   onto the case.  Each new package that was sent from Hong 
   Kong was intercepted by Agent Wong, who slowly built up 
   a case against Chen Cho-Wei. As a reward for his work in 
   breaking the counterfeiting ring, Agent Wong was promoted to 
   the Secret Service's White House detail. 

   Harvey Stack remembers that the Hong Kong Chinese 
   preferred Liberty Head Quarter Eagles for marriage gifts and 
   usually paid a  premium that priced them higher than Liberty 
   Head $5's.   These gifts usually took the form of 13 Quarter 
   Eagles (in the Caribbean such gifts were usually 13 Gold 
   Dollars but only Type 1's, not 3's). Harvey thinks that this 
   preference may account for why the counterfeiters chose to 
   make Quarter Eagles rather than 5's or 10's.  Harvey 
   remembers that he thought the counterstamps on the Trade 
   Dollars Chen Cho-Wei sold were also fake but he didn't pay 
   much attention to them at the time." 

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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