The authenticity of the Pokémon TCG’s highly sought-after “prototype cards” are now under scrutiny. Last year, hundreds of these prototypes, claimed to be from the personal collection of Takumi Akabane—an original creator of the Pokémon TCG who worked at Creatures until 2008—began circulating in collecting circles. Akabane even attended events to sign some of the cards, and grading company CGC collaborated with him to verify their authenticity.

These prototypes, said to date back to 1996, showcase the TCG’s evolution from early “proof of concept” designs featuring Red & Green sprites to beta versions with final artwork by Mitsuhiro Arita and Ken Sugimori. However, the collecting community was recently shaken when pfm, a buyer of the cards, used forensic analysis to reveal that many were printed in 2024. This includes cards CGC authenticated as part of Akabane’s collection.

Hidden watermarks and dot code matrices on the cards, such as a prototype Nidoqueen, indicate a June 29, 2024, printing date. Other collectors have since confirmed similar findings.

It remains unclear whether some or all of the cards are fake, or if an original print run exists. Akabane’s involvement is also uncertain, though it seems unlikely he would knowingly participate in wrongdoing, given Pokémon’s strict IP protections. Millions of dollars’ worth of these cards have been sold, including a prototype Pikachu that fetched $20,000 at auction.

CGC is currently conducting an investigation. Though their reputation had already been on precarious footing after the comic slabbing scandal from last year.  It also calls into question the role of grading companies if they aren’t even conducting this level of research to authenticate such expensive and rare cards.

You can also read the article from CGC where they first start to detail their process authenticating these playtest cards and there are some photos of the cards.

This video does a great job detailing the scandal and also gives some of the visual history of the early playtesting Pokemon TCG cards.