E-bay Coins Look Fake To Me

Not by any means an expert, but check these out: http://www.ebay.com/sch/drosdofilos765/m.html?_trksid=p3692

 

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Hurry and get your bid in. You could get the one coin for $1.00 with free shipping from Bulgaria. I guess the seller makes -$7.95 profit?

At least the seller has great reviews.

 

At least they're all very poorly faked.

 

Dang...and here I thought my Christmas shopping was done...

 

LOL, Duuude: you have GOT to stop your habit of ebay shopping for Ancients, UNLESS it is a reputable Dealer. That guy only has 99 sales, and is offering up those BLATANTLY fake coins... Be careful, but I would avoid dubious ebay sellers (unless they are a reputable seller), and go to Vcoins.com or MA-Shops.com for purchases. Otherwise, you are going to get stung...

 

I would add to what Brian said: Stay away from coins from Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Greece. Also, if it sounds to good to be true...........It's not!

 

Most of those are very rare types and should be snapped up by the jewelry market. They are most definitely fake but at the start price, worth it. I wonder what the ending bids will be?

 

Great post if one were assembling a 'Black Cabinet'.

 

Now, those are some coins I don't mind seeing mounted into rings or cut into squares!

 

There is also a reputable dealer in New York-Dr. Robert Kurlan who sells various lots of un-cleaned and cleaned.

 

Even as an unexperienced collector, these looked "off". Most I buy I run past you guys.

 

You will notice that the word "Ancient" does not appear in the listings. For a couple of bucks each and free shipping, it's not like this is a major scam, it's just very misleading. It would be nice, though, if the seller listed them as reproductions.

 

They're cute reproductions! They probably came from a dealer such as the one below who provides reproduction coin collections for museum gift shops and medieval reenactments etc.

MEDIEVAL COLLECTABLES
http://www.medievalcollectibles.com/c-741-roman-coins.aspx

 

I noticed in his feedback that all his sales are private, so you can't tell what these usually end up going for. It's one thing to sell a repro for $5, but if these end up selling for $50 a pop then I think we need to report this seller to eBay, (which is a major pain, by the way).

BTW, if you ever want to investigate a seller, you can get a list of all the negative feedback he or she has received here: toolhaus.org

 

I have a dealer from Bulgaria, have purchased several. So far so good.
But doesn't sell on ebay either.

 

I wrote to the eBay dealer and asked if the coins were authentic or replicas. He wrote back saying it was a replica.

 

Some of these are clearly Slavei 'coins', but the fabric seems a bit off from the ones produced in the 90's. I wonder if his dies are still being used. Still collectible, but they dont look silver so I would only suggest a value of $1 or so each.

 

The coin I bid on, just to see what the final selling price would be, ending up selling for $13.50.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Domitia-Roman-Coin-denarius/232173340425?_trksid=p2052191.m2338

My guess is that the Brutus or Julius Caesar coin will end up going for a lot more. Anyone inexperienced enough to think these coins are legit has probably never heard of Domitia.

 

And 12 bids on it.

 

What I see here is perfectly normal for fakes. If I were to decide to go into the fake making business I could buy a $1000 original and use it to make make copies that might fool 90% of the people or I could buy a $10 Slavei and fool 80% of the fools out there. Do the math. Peter Rosa made fakes from Becker originals. Paduans of Renaissance masters were 'aftercast' for centuries and still may be in production somewhere. I suspect stealing designs from Slavey is considered quite normal in some circles so we should not be surprised to see 'aftercasts' of his as well. I do know that the Slavey's I bought for $4 each 20 years ago are being sold openly as what they are for at least 5 times the price which is a better rate of return than my real stuff.