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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 665569, member: 19463&quot;]Two points:&nbsp; </p><p>These are not much harder to authenticate than US coins but it helps a lot to have the coin in hand rather than working from a photo.&nbsp; 90% of fakes are easy to spot but there are diagnostic features of fakes that make us doubt a number of perfectly genuine coins.&nbsp; This is especially true of coins that have been cleaned poorly.&nbsp; PCGS does not extend certificates to coins submitted by photo.&nbsp; They won&#039;t even service a coin that has any one of a dozen situations that almost all ancient coins have.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&#039;Authentic&#039; is a difficult term with ancients.&nbsp; Because there it so many variations, it is quite possible to see a coin that is different in style rom those in our experience but not immediately obvious whether the coin is a result of striking oddity, a different engraver at the main mint, product of a branch mint not familiar to us, product of an ancient authority producing coins for local use, ancient counterfeit or, finally, a modern fake.&nbsp; Collectors do not want modern fakes.&nbsp; Many collectors avoid ancient counterfeits and local use items (partly because they are more difficult to separate into appropriate groups).&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Collecting ancients is not a matter of filling empty holes in an album.&nbsp; Like modern coins, it is possible to collect ancients on several levels.&nbsp; Beginners probably should avoid coins with too many questions or footnotes unless they are willing to pay David Sear or another &#039;expert&#039; for an opinion and be willing to accept the possibility that the expert will be wrong a small fraction of the time (just like when people crack open slabs they believe are 01 lower than their coin deserves).&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Why do we collect them?&nbsp; Because they are not boring.&nbsp;&nbsp; Relatively fewer ancients collectors are in it for investment and the opportunities for study are immense.&nbsp;&nbsp; Being &#039;sure&#039; is not as important if you consider $10 spent on a fake to be an educational expense rather than a world ender.&nbsp; Why do US collectors pay 80 times as much for a Lincoln cent with an S under the date than one without?&nbsp; Why do they pay hundreds more for a coin which exists with only a hundred known to be nicer rather than a similar item with a thousand nicer?&nbsp; Because that is the hobby each of us has chosen.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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