Advice On Ancient Gold Coins Please

You may want to check out A.H. Baldwin & Sons Ltd, in London. There are also on Vcoins.com.

I don't buy ancient gold coins from any except a dealer or auction house of the highest reputation.

I have seen a few very excellent fake ancient gold coins in good gold, and despite my years of experience, wasn't able to reliably pick them. Normally, if a faker is going to move his stock for big money, a lot of effort is expended in producing the best quality fake possible.

Dealers of lesser expertise are not dishonest at all, their lesser expertise just makes them harder for me to buy from.

Keep all of the purchase records of the more valuable ancient coins you buy, and keep them in a separate safe place.

sel_69l if you are hard pushed to know a genuine example from a copy then I am put off a little. Of the places suggested would anyone recommend one specifically? I buy a fair amount of gold Celtic and I know of only 2 100 percent genuine suppliers, is it not the same for Roman stuff? I am going to be investing a fair amount of money into these coins and if it is London, Greece or the US I need to buy from, then so be it. I just want to know what I buy is without any doubt genuine.

echizento has said it all.
I have come across a number of ancient gold coins in good gold over the years at coin shows. Of some of these, my 'gut' feeling is that they are a little bit 'iffy'. However my confidence level was not high enough to declare them fakes, so I just remain silent, for fear of either putting egg on my face, or that of the dealer.

I have even seen fake ancient gold coins up for sale at auction that are actually described as fakes. These coins are in my opinion worth having in a 'black' collection for the purposes of self education. I have about 100 fake ancient coins for this purpose, but none in gold. An 8 gramme coin in good gold, be it a fake ancient or modern bullion coin, still requires some decent money to acquire from an auction. That is why I have no fake ancient gold coins in my collection, but do have silver and bronze fakes.

Sometimes you really need the services of a good computer data base on fake examples. That is a problem if you can't refer to that data base at a coin show, because your keyboard isn't in front of you.

check out the Great Western Hotel in Paddington Tube Station. The Portobello Road Antique Market. The Collectors fair at by Charing Cross tube station. Mews by Grosvenor Square.

sel_69l Thank you very much for that, that sounds like the place I am looking for. Chris is the main guy I buy from, yes his prices are a little high but I know that if I get a coin from him it is genuine. I will look into the time of the next auction when I have a moment free, in the middle of a big detecting contract at the moment and we are a little behind and may not get the whole site covered and that would be a disaster for us as it (hopefully!!) should contain some very nice early finds. I am camping out on the site next week, just so I can get searching if I can't sleep! Thanks again for that sel & everyone. When I get my first gold Roman I will post it for you to see. (when I have finished pawing over it)