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Haha, out of curiosity, what are the key factors you look for when identifying the fake from the genuine?
This is a huge, huge, question, short answer is experience.
Coin wise its possible to pretty quickly weed out poor fakes looking at the coins material, surfaces, evidence of casting (edge seams, spruees etc) and the general 'look' of the coin.
The seller also plays a part, as this seller has in forming our opinions of him. He has done pretty much everything a shady seller does and that in itself is damming of his items for sale.
His latest 'tell' relating to not wanting to accept Paypal means it would be much, much harder for any buyers to return items for refund and get their money back. If and when the buyer of the £220 fake Carausius realises its fake having paid by bank transfer they have little chance of ever seeing their money again.
If coins pass the above hurdles but doubt still remains then historical data can be used, many sites exist showing fakes but this is one of the better ones:
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/index.phpTry clicking the 'Search' button at the top of the page and entering 'Vetranio', you will see other examples of this sellers fake.
These sites are very valuable to the collector and simply surfing them very useful in gaining important experience. Our very own member maridvnvm is heavily involved with the above site and I recently uploaded about 200 fake reports simply to improve my own knowledge and ability to spot them. Not only does it help the database its good for the individual and I'd recommend doing it to anyone, indeed those who use the resource regularly should really see it as a form of 'paying' back for the info they can get for free.
If a coin looks good and the seller looks good and no matches can be found in known fakes then its down to the style of the coins. This only comes from experience and is often an opinion rather than a cast iron promise. Once a person has looked at, bought/sold, handled 000's of coins they can spot things that others cant. This takes a long time unless you intend to specialise in a small area of ancients but its very satisfying when the experience does come.
You could decide, for example, that you only want to collect the coins of Probus. If you spent the next few years studying those coins and viewing them relentlessly you would become an 'expert' and be able to spot things in them that others simply can't. You would also be able to spot most fakes 'a mile off'. This is pretty easy for a single coin or even an Emperor but not many can claim to know even 10% of ancients that well!
This is a lifetime hobby and were all learning until the day we die
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Posted 12/09/2012 8:11 pm
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