The thread I started on Super Bowl Sunday about a counterfeit 1796 dollar on eBay (http://www.cointalk.com/forum/t47224/) generated tons of response and outrage, and Handsome Toad followed that up with another thread on the same topic. http://www.cointalk.com/forum/t47252/ But the more I look, the more problems I find with eBay auctions. Today's case in point involves a 1798 dollar up for auction at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=290293701837 This one is guaranteed in the auction to be authentic. It looked a little odd to me, and the text of the auction described it as a 1805 dollar, so I sent the seller an email to clarify the date, and to ask if the coin had been cleaned or doctored. The seller quickly responded, telling me that at at some point in its long life, the coin had probably been cleaned. OK, that's an decent answer. As to whether it had been doctored, however, she said "It does not appear to me to have ever been doctored; however, what you see and what I am describing is what I am selling. It is a nice coin and would already have been sold if my friends had the money." Red flag, warning bells. When a seller says "what you see is what you get," all I get is nervous. And then the story about her friends would have bought it if they had the money, and that does it for me. But wait, there's more. A quick Google of "1798 dollar counterfeit" and I hit on a great site that shows good photos of several of the more common early dollar fakes sold on eBay. Take a look at http://home.comcast.net/~reidgold/draped_busts/page_7.html If you're like me, you'll be depressed at the extent of the fraud. As for this particular 1798 dollar, on the websie I just mentioned scroll down to the photos labelled "Toolie 1" and "Toolie 2". These are indeed authentic 1798 dollars, just like this auction says, but they have been tooled to hide the wear. Then take a look at the racoon-like eyes on Toolie 1 and 2, and compare them with the eyes on the 1798 being auctioned on eBay. Looks to me like the same family of racoons. OK, I give up. eBay seems too dangerous when it comes to buying moderately expensive coins. Dean Guaneli (guanelid)
Stick with slabbed coins on eBay. EXCEPTION: The value is too low to merit faking/counterfeiting/altering. Then you only would have to worry about cleaned coins.
