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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kevin McGonigal, post: 3702219, member: 72790&quot;]We are very, very vulnerable to this sort of thing. I try very hard to educate myself to the legitimacy of my ancient purchases but I am close to just giving up. This very Sunday I am returning to a periodic local show to return two coins I purchased in good faith. One turned out to be an excellent Balkan imitation of a Republic denarius. It was listed and pictured on another site that has pages of known fakes with info on who puts them out. It is a struck, not cast, coin in good silver, with apparent wear on the high points, what looks like a slight gouge on the cheek and darn it looked good. The tip off there might be something wrong was its weight, (when I got home) about a gram light and that sent me off to that forum where I found it, gouge and all. The second was an impossible coin from an obscure Greek city state. Again from appearance it looked good, but again it was the weight. The city state never issued any silver coins at this weight. 9.7 grams. It issued only small fractions of a drachma (tetrobols)&nbsp; and tetradrachmas at the Attic standard. Nothing of any coin anywhere near its actual weight. I guess I need to invest in a small scale to take with me to shows and shops. (any suggestions on one?)</p><p><br /></p><p>One coin I sent away recently came back as a fake but I purchased that one decades ago and just have to eat the several hundred dollar loss. I don&#039;t like to purchase coins from on line sites as I like to have the coin in hand before my purchase and I must wonder if the people I deal with on line are themselves immune from accidentally offering coins that will turn out bad. Most of all I wonder about the coins I send away for certification, if the people there are certain about the coins they certify. In short, though I love the hobby and the history, unless some means can be found that will allow the average collector to determine the authenticity of the ancients he purchases the hobby will become limited to collectors who don&#039;t care and sellers who won&#039;t care and many of us will go back to collecting beer cans and bottle caps.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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