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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;guanelid, post: 512706, member: 16988&quot;]I had a choice today.&nbsp; I could get swept up by the pre-game hype of the Super Bowl, or I could do some detective work on an intriguing coin in eBay.&nbsp; I flipped a coin, and the coin won.&nbsp; I hope the winning bidder doesn&#039;t lose.</p><p><br /></p><p>With a little over two hours to go in an eBay auction today, only $100 had been bid on a EF 1796 Bust dollar.&nbsp; My interest was piqued.&nbsp; So I looked very closely at the photos.&nbsp; I couldn&#039;t see anything wrong with it at first.&nbsp; But the description bothered me. </p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s what the seller had to say: &quot;My wife inherited this from her Great Uncle&#039;s Estate many years ago. She found it recently in her old jewelry box. I do not know anything about coins. So i can not say if it is REAL or FAKE. Please look at the pictures and judge for yourself.&quot;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Not exactly a ringing endorsement.&nbsp; And it seemed to me the lack of bidding meant that many people thought it was fake.&nbsp; I looked more closely at the photos, and compared them with known 1796 dollars on reputable sites.&nbsp; Something looked off.&nbsp; The location of the head didn&#039;t seem quite right.&nbsp; The curls on the top of the head lined up with the wrong letters in LIBERTY.&nbsp; I kept clicking on websites and checks my books.&nbsp; I thought the head looked like the one used on the 1795 coin.&nbsp; But I&#039;m just a neophyte, and I&#039;m doing this very quickly, so I could be wrong.&nbsp; I kept looking and reading sites on counterfeit coins.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I found a site that showed a picture of a Chinese counterfeit 1796 dollar.&nbsp; That Chinese counterfeit was easy to spot.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.silver-coins.org/1796_draped_bust_dollar.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.silver-coins.org/1796_draped_bust_dollar.html" rel="nofollow">www.silver-coins.org/1796_draped_bust_dollar.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p>But even though the eBay auction wasn&#039;t offering that known type of Chinese&nbsp; counterfeit.&nbsp; I wasn&#039;t satisfied until I found another website that seemed to show the precise type of 1796 with misaligned head that was on eBay.&nbsp; That website called it a counterfeit.&nbsp; That was good enough for me.</p><p><a href="http://www.civitasgalleries.com/counterfeits/1796silverdollar.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.civitasgalleries.com/counterfeits/1796silverdollar.html" rel="nofollow">www.civitasgalleries.com/counterfeits/1796silverdollar.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p>But by then, in just a few minutes, the bid had jumped to close to $600.&nbsp; Still way below market.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>There is 1 hour 45 minutes to go.&nbsp; The bidding is still open.&nbsp; What should I do?&nbsp; There&#039;s no way I would bid on this coin, but am I sure enough to contact the bidders?&nbsp; Probably not.&nbsp; If I were wrong, that would probably just get me sued, and banned from eBay.&nbsp; Should I contact eBay now or later or at all?&nbsp; I don&#039;t even know for sure that I&#039;m right about this.</p><p><br /></p><p>Any thoughts?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Dean Guaneli</p><p>(guanelid) </p><p><br /></p><p>P.S.&nbsp; I&#039;m not going to do anything before the auction ends.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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