Pre Ebay Fraud

BTW-Nature (source of this story) is the most prestigous general science journal...

An ingenious counterfeit-coin scam has been rumbled by scientists in Italy. But no one is going to jail, because the forgers lived more than 2,000 years ago.
Giuseppe Giovannelli of the University of Rome 'La Sapienza' and his colleagues took a close look at what seemed to be a silver coin minted in southern Italy in the third centuy
This is not the first example of counterfeiting in the ancient world, but the researchers say that in this case the silver coating seems to have been created by a sophisticated chemical process.
"We are not yet aware of any other counterfeit coins like this one," says Giovannelli.
Tainted trove
The coin is part of a hoard that was stashed in a pottery vessel and uncovered in 1948 near the town of Parabita, which is near Gallipoli. For years it was thought to be a regular silver coin. But in 2003 an investigation by researchers at the University of Lecce, near Parabita, revealed that under the remaining patches of silver the piece was made of lead.
 
University of Rome 'La Sapienza'Giovannelli and colleagues think that the coin was minted with deception in mind.
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060...60327-8.html