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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ken Dorney, post: 3456016, member: 76086&quot;]Sadly there are a lot of people out there who seem to believe that just about everything is fake.&nbsp; Sometimes they are right, a coin is indeed fake, but just as often they are wrong (and I have been wrong many times as well).&nbsp; But it would seem that some people have an agenda.&nbsp; In some cases there are those who despise collecting and would do anything to undermine the hobby.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>In other cases there is the &#039;lemming&#039; concept, people are just offering their opinions like a mina bird.&nbsp; They just heard it elsewhere and are not really contributing but passing on what they heard with no knowledge, experience or really anything to contribute.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Finally there is the profit motive.&nbsp; There are those who will condemn a coin only to reduce their competition for said item.&nbsp; I have seen many well known and respected dealers condemn a coin only to buy it after the value has been lowered to essentially nothing.&nbsp; Some of these people will also warn collectors at a show that dealer so and so all have fakes, be careful, I am only looking out for you.&nbsp; Then the collectors come back and buy from that dealer.&nbsp; Its sad, but it happens.&nbsp; All the time.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are some people out there who for various reasons (legitimate and otherwise) actually believe that a certain series of coins are largely fake.&nbsp; They expound on how there are so many fakes are out there, to be careful, etc. but they dont know as much as they think, and they do much more damage to the hobby than perhaps they realize.&nbsp; Fakes are a problem, yes, but not nearly as large as some would have us think.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>All of this needs to be taken with a grain of salt.&nbsp; I know, it is very hard for beginners to really know all this, to process all the data, good and bad.&nbsp; But ultimately I have always said that the best defense is knowledge.&nbsp;&nbsp; Buy books, read them.&nbsp; Know what it is you are collecting.&nbsp; Look through as many sources as you can online (which is uber easy and costs nothing in this new world), including such Ebay.&nbsp; Ebay can often tell us what to look out for as most of the fakes currently sold in the world are there (not that I am saying one should stay away from that venue as there are many more genuine coins for sale there than fake).</p><p><br /></p><p>As for Yahoo Groups.&nbsp; Some (but very few) of us have been online since the inception of the WWW (which is different from the internet).&nbsp; Maybe some of us remember when e-mail was invented, BBS services, FTP, etc.&nbsp; Yahoo Groups was just an evolution from all the origins but more from Newsgroups (which still exist, are kind of like CT, but are frequented but few).&nbsp; They used to operate strictly via e-mail, then by website.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>A while back I received an e-mail from one of those groups.&nbsp; I hit the &#039;reply&#039; button with a message with something akin to &#039;you know these groups are dead, right?&#039;.&nbsp; I received something like three replies, &#039;no, there is still someone here&#039;, but those were the only messages in months.&nbsp; Groups like Moneta-L (and their predecessor Numism-L) are just about completely dead.&nbsp; While they still have subscribers, there isnt anyone reading or contributing.&nbsp; They are dead.&nbsp; Including CDFL.</p><p><br /></p><p>As far as I know the most active place to discuss ancient coins is right here on CT and Forum.&nbsp; Sure, there are a couple Facebook groups, but they are not what we all think.&nbsp; I suppose there might be a Reddit, but its not what it is here.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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