I can't find this seller on my "Fake Sellers" lists, but do the Roman coins being sold by this ebay seller look 'suspicious' to anyone else, or is it only me? https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/VITELLI...074691?hash=item1a44e60403:g:3zYAAOSwPGpaeLWA https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/TIBERIU...080265?hash=item1a44e619c9:g:c0oAAOSwlzRaeLRS https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NERO-RO...083680?hash=item1a44e62720:g:grwAAOSwPkBaeLUA https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/VESPASI...088161?hash=item1a44e638a1:g:KdoAAOSwicpaeLX7
I've seen the seller offering fibulae on eBay before, and I've also thought that some of his offerings looked a bit off. Although a lot of what he has looks fine, that alone is enough to make me steer clear. To me, the obverse of the Nero denarius looks particularly off. The fields are awfully rough.
The one neutral feedback he has is for four coins/tokens he claimed he found metal detecting. The feedback asks what he was doing metal detecting in China
@Kentucky I saw that, and it didn't help to put my mind at ease, at all. (Those coins look 'sus', to me too.)
At the very least if Vitellius is real it has been tooled. The reverse of Nero and Tiberius look suspicious to me, and the fields on the obverse of the Nero look weird. The size of the Vespasian looks off too, like a coin minted on a way too small flan, though that's not the type of stuff I'd expect at that point in time from the Roman Mint.
Even with the blurry pictures, one common feature stands out: they all have the same obvious sand/dirt patina -- at least, it looks the same in all four pictures. It seems to me that they've all been artificially patinized in the same manner. Personally, I would not recommend purchasing coins from this individual.
