Does this eBay seller have a 'Fantastic' coin collection, or a collection of 'Fakes'??? https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/ancient...RCEAAOSw3vpeISRc&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562
All their coins look 'sharp and solid', some have the flow-lines as well. The things I don't like is the lack of sufficient feedback and exorbitant prices for some ordinary denari!
All those coins look too similar to each other. What are the odds that coins minted hundreds of years and hundreds of miles apart look the exact same in terms of colors and matrix?
I imagine most of these photos are Roma Numismatics ones -- the bluish tone to the silver is quite characteristic. Both the Trajan and Marcus denarii pictured in OP's photo were sold by Roma in November 2019, for example (Trajan) (Marcus). The lower-quality phone photos for each lot does prima facie suggest the seller does actually own the coins, and is using the auction photos for additional eye appeal.
I would be surprised to hear these are fake. Colours are deceiving in photos. Even so, the coins do not look similar to me. And what is a matrix in the context of coins?
By matrix I meant the composition. To my inexpert eye these could easily have been made from the same metal stock. but obviously experts have chimes in and indicated that I am very wrong
We have incredibly strong consumer protection, fair trading laws in Aus, deliberately selling expensive fakes would not be a very sustainable operation. I think he is importing really nice silver and marking it up for the local market. Had the only Owls on ebay Aus when I was looking a few weeks ago and some of the nicest ones globally. Edit: Also re: price, this seller sponsor's their listings at ~5%, so add that to standard Ebay fees and PayPal and ~18% of his sale price is going straight to that lot. That'd account for a good deal of his markup. Still a pricey Drachm though
