Hi folks. I hhave just bought a M Aurelius coin on Vcoins that, as I looks closer, and with a more critical eye, have doubts of it's autheticity. There are circular dimples that coild be casting bubbles... I welcome opinions on this coin. Thank you for your time.
Those are not casting bubbles. I am pretty sure that Naville is competent enough to also know better.
After collecting for a while, you develop a keen eye for distinguishing between the real and fake coins. While some may still deceive you, I assure you that your skills will improve over time.
I have had issues in the past with mistaken claims of inauthenticity - fortunately those claims were kept to myself so I wasn't embarassed by making a false claim. The coin appears to be fine - my suggestion would be to go on one of the database sites like coinarchives and try to find a die match. Your coin does not look like it is a copy made from an existing coin - it doesn't have the muddy look that would mean a copy - if you find a die match you should be ok. Also check out the Forum database of known fakes - that has saved me on several occasions from buying fakes.
Let me add that the "issues" I reference above are personal angst over buying a fake -- that turned out to be nothing. And it is true that you get a feel for this as you handle coins over time - in 27 years of doing this I have mistakenly bought about 10 fakes - still have five of them, the others refunded. And the sellers for some of the coins on which I received refunds did NOT demand the return of the coin - which means that the sale of a fake was intentional. Unfortunately, ebay, from which I purchased most of the fakes has no interest in policing fakes, which only hurts honest sellers. But, of probably by this time thousands of coins purchased on ebay, the ratio of 10 to thousands is not bad.
