Why is it every time I review the last 24 hours of new vcoins offerings, I see "orange" coins and immediately know who the seller is? He's been called on this many times, and yet he still does it. On the new listings, he either mentions the "red earthen" patina (without mentioning that it's an artificial applied patina) or he doesn't mention the patina at all. Look, i'd love to buy a Majorian, but I have zero trust in this code-of-ethics repeat offender.
Could he not mix it up a little, and apply the yellow stuff that Zurqieh uses to some of them... just to make it a little more believable?
...creature of habit?.. or, just creature...idk, him and the other patinaer have a signature or flag on each of their coins.
He should mix it up by removing the patina from several of his coins, and stop the practice. He would gain "credibility", rather than constantly appear to be deceiving. Sadly, if his scarce to rare offerings are real, I would have a lot more confidence in buying them un-patinated! Otherwise, like @Bing , I do not even look at his offering... loss of trust for me.
I bought high value items from him once, but never again. As for Zurqieh, he has a nice big Antinous drachm that I need but I'm not going to buy it. So that's a few thousand dollars that he would have made if he was honest!
Sadly, I'm now embarrssed to post any of my desert-patina coins ... "just in case" they're from these dicks => desert patina is so pretty "if it's honest" ... but, maybe none of it is legit? (that's a bit sad)
Probably can be safely removed with acetone. Without the artificial sand highlighting the devices, you won't know what it will look like, whether there are hidden problems and whether it was worth the price. Salem will remove the sand on request, but deny that he put it there in the first place, and send you a photo of the coin without makeup. But I prefer not to deal with him.
he is apparently doing very well with his sales...he even had 14 orange coins in ROMA XIII and received a special thanks.
More than that I guess. I used to buy from him very nice coins in the past, but since he customizes his offerings I don't even look at them anymore Q
Yes. I hope those of you with an established relationship with Roma will write in. On the face of it, they are either knowingly selling faked coins, or failing to exercise due care in assessing lots submitted for sale. Hard to underestimate the seriousness of this. Imagine if Sotheby's or Christie's knowingly accepted consignments that a dealer had added false signatures without saying anything in the catalog.