Assuaging Doubt

This post is a little bit inspired by the slabbing thread taking place this morning:

The most annoying (verging on obnoxious--obnoxious I say) aspect of this hobby is explaining to ABSOLUTELY EVERY PERSON I've EVER shown a coin to the answer to, "How do you know it's real?"

My answer usually runs too long and I'm pretty sure some people lose interest before we get to the actual coin.

How do you guys answer this? Is there a one- or two-sentence way to deal with this? Should I just tell them they're stupid and that their only job is to validate my investment of time and money?

 

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"How do you know you're really standing here talking to me?"
- or -
"How do you know I'm not going to punch you in the nose?" (answer: "You don't!" BAM!)

Edit: bonus points for using the word "assuaging"

 

Because I weighed, measured, and examined the coin myself, and it came from a trusted and knowledgful dealer, and matches known examples in catalogs.

And if they insist on more, then you give them the long borring answer how "One can never be 100% sure of anything in life, but ....blah, blah, blah.....(20 minutes later and Bob is thinking 'My god, this man is still talking about his coin. How do I get him to shut up?') blah, blah, blah...and that's how I'm sure it is genuine. Hey, where did Bob go? I must have gotten so caught up talking about my coin he must have left and I didn't even notice."

 

There is no spoon..

 

Assuaging, is that a type of sausage? (would that be slabbed too?) *dictionary search* Ah.

 

Sorry... that's the English teacher in me.. always working to expand my students' vocabularies..

 

An excellent word.

I gave up long ago. Most people find my hobby boring at the very least and do not want to hear me expound about the virtues of any particular coin. IF I show someone a new acquisition, I get "Oh that's nice" kind of response.

 

You could always try:

"I don't! I just buy whatever tickles my fancy with no thought of verification. There are no dishonest people in the world... especially on eBay!"

 

I have had tables at coin shows since the late 80's, so I am well versed in this topic. As a dealer I have to size up whether or not the person asking the question is a 'looky-loo' and wasting my time, or a potential collector. Dont get me wrong, I love discussing ancients, but often we get those argumentative types who insist that what I have in my trays are just 'rocks'. Yes, people really do think they are! Anyway, there isnt any easy answer to these questions unless the person asking is open to actually learning something.

 

I simply tell them to "look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

I typically get the question "how much did it buy" before whether it's real. Almost as hard to answer.

 

I always hear a lot about spices. All my friends think the ancients were awash in spices.

 

Reminds me of the movie "The Graduate"...one word...EXPERIENCE!

 

Since there are many coins I certainly would not bet on one way or the other, I can't answer that question. People who have to know everything necessary about a subject as complex as coins buy slabs.

The word from the graduate I remember was PLASTIC!

 

Yup, but in this context, it has to be EXPERIENCE, if they require any more information, it is on their own heads if they become bored to tears.

 

If you want to expand their vocabulary, give them an extra pair of thumbs for their Smart Phone. Unfortunately, it still won't teach them to spell.

Chris

 

Or use spaces, or capitalize I. The good news is once you scrub away the grammar errors they've got some good ideas that are well worth reading.

 

I simply explain they match examples published as being recovered in ancient sites.

It's a repetitive question, but fair. Most simply do not know such things are collectible, they think all are in museums and worth a lot of money. It's simple education, so I do not get mad at the question.

 

However, good ideas can be destroyed by an improperly placed comma, mama!

However, good ideas can be destroyed by an improperly placed comma mama!

Chris

 

I simply say, "You're not a collection. I am. Take my word for it, it's real."

 

Whenever I get this question, my answer is generally "because I've spent a lot of time studying these and I believe it is genuine". If it's someone I honestly believe is interested in discussing it, I will go into things like die matches I know of(I usually look at the ANS, British Museum, RBW, etc and record what I find), style, fabric, mineral deposits, provenance, etc. I usually spend a while looking over coins I am considering buying and doing the basic research, regardless of their source, to try to figure out if the style, weight, etc is consistent and check that it doesn't match any known fakes. Then, usually within a week of getting the coin in-hand it gets catalogued and goes under the microscope to look for signs of casting, tooling, etc and I also look for die matches in collections online. After that, usually once or twice a month, I take all my recent purchases and spend a few hours seeing if I can find any provenance that wasn't originally supplied and verify any provenance that was given(and record any die matches I find in old catalogs). At the end of all this, if anything has changed I print new tags and replace the original ones I catalogued with. In a few cases I've contacted various experts on specific types as well looking for more info. At the end of the day, this process convinces me of a coin's authenticity, or lack thereof, and the results are a little different for every single one in my collection so there is no "one size fits all" answer to the question but most people don't care enough to hear about every single little detail so they get the summary above.