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Message:: [QUOTE="medoraman, post: 1842993, member: 26302"]Yes, there are a tremendous amount of fakes out there. These two, (seller's photographs), match to known good examples from both "Siamese Coins, From Funan to the Fifth Reign" and Michiner's "Ancient coins and their values - Non Islamic States". I would never buy coins of Funan or Dvaravati from China or (unfortunately) Thailand unless you know the dealer very well AND you can match the styles up.  Unfortunately, legitimate coins come in a variety of styles, since these two types were made over hundreds of years. So, you have to know your dealer, have a good reference on the pieces, (I recommend "Siamese Coins" VERY highly for this purpose), or buy certified examples if you are unsure. Since these are all pretty scarce pieces, I cannot recommend any dealer who has these in stock usually, but some of my pieces have come from Scott Semans, Steve Album, and the author of "Siamese Coins" who lives in Bangkok. Thanks Doug, I should have talked about the forgeries earlier. There are a lot of them, like many rare coins in Asia. Thankfully most are more tourist copies than legitimate collector fakes, but to someone unfamiliar with these coins at all, they might look similar. When in doubt, NEVER buy a coin that is not EXACTLY like in the book. You might miss out on a few real pieces, but Siamese coins illustrates about 50 different styles of authentic pieces, and about 30 styles of forgeries.[/QUOTE]