I recall seeing a thread that had mentioned that you could not get a real aureus for a around 1000 dollars or if you did it was damaged. I saw these using the completed listing function on Ebay. Does anyone think they are real? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Aureus-Aur...171356?hash=item3b4136a79c:g:2SMAAOSw5eNeMfJV https://www.ebay.com/itm/Aureus-Aur...397509?hash=item3b40277285:g:LMIAAOSwbY5eFMOe I think the second one might be real but that the first is fake. Please tell me what you think.
Both horrible fakes. Honestly, if you can't tell these are forgeries, avoid buying anything from Ebay. Not trying to be sarcastic, just warning you to avoid ebay. Barry Murphy
I appreciate your answer. Thanks! I will stay away from Ebay because I clearly can’t tell the difference.
Both look off in style, and all the details look a bit soft. That should raise the fake alarm (and in this case it’s not a false alarm). There are not many dealers I would buy from on ebay.
I would say, I am surprised the Plotina ex. sold. These are really bad forgeries. I guess, greed played a major part in second coin selling. The expert who made that Ahenobarbus aureus back in NFA auction, was a master forger of impeccable talent. These e-bay coins where fabricated by imbeciles.
You wouldn't get a halfway decent non-gold coin of Plotina for less than a thousand, let alone an aureus! At this price point your best bet is something like a well-worn Nero. You can find them on ebay frequently enough but you're probably not saving that much over a similar coin offered in a typical auction by an established dealer. EF-level aurei like the ones you linked will never go for less than $5,000. That's five-digit territory. Rasiel
I am sure that at least once in the history of ebay, somebody got an insane deal on a genuine coin on the level of a Plotina aureus sold without a reserve. And for that one coin, there are thousands of chumps who wasted good money on bad fakes. Unless it's from a *highly* trusted seller, I wouldn't buy anything worth more than about $100 off of ebay.
I am not fond of treating eBay as if it were a seller. eBay is a flea market. There are sleazy dealers selling stolen or fake goods and there are retired professionals lightening the load as they prepare to move to a retirement home. eBay sells only the space to set up shop and polices only things they fear they could be arrested for ignoring. There are good people who sell on eBay and not so great ones that run fancy auctions or storefronts. I see three kinds of coins on eBay (in order of number): 1. Real but often trash so overpriced that only the unknowing would pay 2. Fakes 3. Coins that might be worth buying
Also, how many sellers of genuine ancient coins even in the thousand-dollar range (gold or otherwise) don't bother providing a catalog number so you can look up other examples for comparison purposes? As for ebay in general, I've never bought an ancient coin there, but -- to be fair -- there are some reputable dealers who sell on v-coins (for example) who also sell on ebay. I don't think I'd ever buy an ancient coin on ebay from a dealer who wasn't already familiar to me from elsewhere. Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, 20 years ago or so, I bought a number of British coins and historical medals on ebay, following the same rule.
Sometimes I think Ebay should introduce a kind of comment function to each coin sold on its platform and link this function to a forum like this one, where experienced collectors could (under their real names) add their assessment (perhaps just a vote button) regarding the coins' authenticty. This would drive many forgers out of Business (and drive up prices for genuine coins).
$100? I sell coins on eBay, and I frequently recommend eBay to newbies, but always with the cavaet that they should never spend more than $15 on a coin (which excludes most of what I sell). I also recommend that they bid $5- -total, including shipping--on any coin up for auction that they find interesting. They won't win the auction, but over time they will get some idea of the relative value of different coins.
