STRICTLY BUSINESS: PHONY POKEMON CARDS, QUARTERS SHOWING UP

Hold them up to the light, make sure they're not "a little smudgy-looking."

That's one youngster's advice for carefully scanning Pokemon trading cards for fakes.

There's a lot of fakes going around these days, ranging from Pokemon trading cards to shiny fake counterfeit quarters.

In both cases, it's becoming a big problem.

Nintendo, which owns the marketing license for all Pokemon goods, has trained customs officials and police officers in New York City and Honolulu in how to tell the difference between real and fake Pokemon cards.

And, in the case of the U.S. coinage, the U.S. Secret Service is investigating the fake quarters being passed along the East Coast.

The phony Pokemon products, from trading cards to stuffed versions of the pudgy favorite Pikachu, are showing up around the country as counterfeiters try to grab some illicit holiday season profits.

So far this year, Pokemon fakers have been arrested in at least four states. Customs officials have seized more than $20 million worth of counterfeit Pokemon goods in the last six months -- about half of that trading cards, say Nintendo officials.

Packets of 11 real Pokemon cards sell for $2.99. But some cards -- especially first editions of such characters as Charizard and Mew -- are reselling for as much as $100 to $200 apiece in some online auctions.

Among the cities where arrests have been made are New York, Chicago and Los Angeles -- where 540,000 counterfeit cards were confiscated at two toy wholesalers in July. Smaller police departments, including one in the Denver suburb of Thornton, Colo., also have confiscated bogus cards.

In the case of the bogus quarters, made from copper blanks, the only clue is that they look very shiny. Otherwise they appear authentic, down to the ridges along the edges.

The fake quarters, dated 1980 to 1999, are either spray-painted with a cheap silver, or dipped in mercury, then struck with a press.

However, there is one dead giveaway in the case of the 1999 quarter.

The fake quarters still have an eagle on the reverse side. But the real 1999 quarters are from the state commemorative series. Their reverse sides feature designs saluting the first five states to enter the union.

Ship of the Year'

The Delta Queen, one of three paddlewheel cruise riverboats operated by Delta Queen Steamboat Co., has been named "Ship of the Year" by the Steamship Historical Society of America.

The Delta Queen, smallest and oldest vessel to cruise the inland waterways, is the last operating steamboat of her era and is one of the most historic vessels in the world, said William DuBarry, president of the steamboat society.

The Delta Queen, which makes frequent stops yearly along the Mississippi River in downtown Cape Girardeau, was launched on the Sacramento River in California in 1927, at a cost of $875,000. The vessel provided overnight service between Sacramento and San Francisco until 1940.

During World War II, the Delta Queen served as a troop barracks in California, and after the war, it was sold at auction to Capt. Tom Green, president of the Greene Line Steamers, which eventually became the Delta Queen Steamboat Co.

The Delta Queen is a National Historic Landmark.

The Delta Queen Steamboat Co. owns and operates three paddlewheelers -- the Delta Queen, and her sister vessels, Mississippi Queen and American Queen.

As many as 3,000 to 5,000 river travelers visit the downtown area each year as a result of Delta Queen Steamboat Co. docking here.

The Delta Queen is smallest of the three Queen, at 285 feet, a passenger capacity of about 200. The American Queen, the newest and largest -- more than 400 feet long -- of the three Queens, has a passenger capacity of 420, and was launched in 1995, at a cost of $60 million. The Mississippi Queen, with a capacity of about 400, is 382 feet long, and was launched in 1976.

All three make stops in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Looking at merger

Harrah's, headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., and Players International, based in Atlantic City, N.J., are awaiting final approval to merge. Missouri gave its blessing to the merger recently, but the companies are awaiting approved from Illinois and Louisiana.

Players announced in August that it had accepted Hurrahs cash offer of $272 million.

Missouri's approval was needed because Harrah's and Players operate a joint venture in Maryland Heights in the St. Louis area. Each operates two separate 30,000-square-foot casinos in the Riverport complex.

Gaming regulators in Illinois, Kentucky and Louisiana must approve the deal. Players operates riverboat casinos at Metropolis, Ill., and Lake Charles, La., and owns a closed-circuit racetrack in Paducah, Ky.

If the merger is approved, Players will operate as a subsidiary of Harrah's, but the latter would gain complete control of the Maryland Heights complex.

Eventually, Harrah's would approach the Missouri Gaming Commission again, about merging the four casinos into two 60,000-square-foot gambling areas. One would be called Harrah's Mardi Gras, and the other would be Players Island.

B. Ray Owen is business editor for the Southeast Missourian.