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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Silverlock, post: 3195273, member: 98181&quot;]I recently came across a fourree listing on eBay:</p><p><br /></p><p>MYSIA, PARION, 4th.century BC. </p><p>AR Fouree Hemidrachm (13mm, 1.6g.). / </p><p>OBV; Gorgoneion. REV; Blank SNG Ashmolean –; SNG BN –;</p><p>SNG von Aulock –; BM –; CNG Inventory 974364. </p><p>VF, ancient forgery fouree coin. </p><p>Looks much, much better on hand!!!</p><p>Authenticity Guaranteed 100% +++ </p><p><br /></p><p>Sure it looked really bad in the pictures, the gorgon side was not VF, and the other side was completely obliterated by corrosion. But hey, it ‘looks much, much better on hand!!!’ Three exclamation marks! Besides, the authenticity was guaranteed more than 100%! The price was too good to be true, so naturally I bid on it. Imagine my luck, I was the only bidder! Yes!</p><p><br /></p><p>The next day I received an email from the seller. It was written by someone for whom English was a second language, not unlike the instructions you get with Alibaba purchases. Darn it, but wouldn’t you know that my particular item was not with the seller in Norway! Fortunately, it was safe and sound in Bulgaria. Whew! The seller explained:</p><p><br /></p><p>“Because of the new heavy prices in Norway for registered mail and tracking number mostly of my items are waiting on stock in Bulgaria, where I&#039;m buying them from. In that reason your item will be shipped from Bulgaria with registered mail and tracking number in secure reasons.”</p><p><br /></p><p>With that reassurance, the seller wanted to know if it would be all right if my item shipped from Bulgaria. Of course, I said, what could possibly be wrong with an ancient coin from Bulgaria?</p><p><br /></p><p>My anticipation built as the weeks passed. Then one day a package arrived. The return address was Bulgaria! My coin was here! Eagerly I tore it open and inside was a little red box covered in Chinese characters. I opened it to find my coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Photography is an art — you hire professionals to photograph a wedding after all — so I understand why my coin might look completely different than the listing photos. Also, we all would agree that much, much better in hand!!! could mean much, much worse in hand!!! Right? Oh yea, does anyone know why silver would turn to base metal? Does alchemy happen often with ancient coins?</p><p><br /></p><p>In the end my $20 bought me a Chinese fake of an ancient fake, sold by a fake seller in a fake location using a fake listing with fake photos. But that’s OK, the price was a bargain.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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