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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gao, post: 639174, member: 19409&quot;]I&#039;d like to add a few things for those looking into buying ancients online:</p><ul> <li><b>Don&#039;t buy anything &quot;as is&quot; or of unknown or unsure authenticity. </b> A favorite tactic of fake sellers is to claim that they aren&#039;t sure of authenticity, so they are selling it as is just in case. I have never seen an auction like this that had a real coin in it.</li> <li><b>Don&#039;t buy anything without a good return policy.</b> Even with the best sellers, a fake will occationally slip through. Because of this, any reputable seller will will offer a lifetime guarantee of authenticity or at least give you a rather long period in which you can check authenticity (since that can take a while). At the same time, keep in min that this doesn&#039;t guarantee a real coin, as some fakers have been doing this in hopes that it simply reassures the buyers so they don&#039;t bother checking.</li> <li><b>Don&#039;t buy from anyone on <a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=18502.0" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=18502.0" rel="nofollow">this list of fake sellers</a>.</b></li> <li><b>Don&#039;t buy without checking the coin(s) against those in a database of fakes</b>, particularly if the seller is someone you aren&#039;t familiar with or is otherwise suspicious. The main one I use is the collection of <a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/index.php" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/index.php" rel="nofollow">fake coin reports</a> hosted by Forvm Ancient Coins, but <a href="http://www.forgerynetwork.com/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forgerynetwork.com/" rel="nofollow">Forgery Network</a> is also very popular for this. If you find that the seller is indeed selling a fake, let them know and provide them with a link to your evidence, as they may not be intentionally selling a fake. If they don&#039;t take the coin down after being shown evidence of forgery, then you should not trust that seller in the future.</li> <li><b>Don&#039;t buy uncleaned coins from anyone who claims &quot;Gold found!&quot;</b> The reason ancient coins get so dirty is that the dirt attatches itself to corrosion on the coin. Gold coins don&#039;t corrode, so they don&#039;t get the hard, tough to clean coverings of dirt like bronze or occationally silver coins do, meaning they would be obvious immediately upon being dug up. No one is going to throw obvious gold coins on eBay for $2 a piece. What these sellers do is occationally throw in a fake gold coin or sometimes a common modern gold coin so that they get a few glowing comments on their feedback. As for silver, it isn&#039;t impossible to find in uncleaned lots, but anyone selling uncleaned coins is going to look for any obvious signs of silver before selling them. Those who have gone through thousands of these coins rarely have more than 1 or 2 silver coins, and they&#039;re usually in poor condition.</li> <li><b>Don&#039;t buy uncleaned coins in hopes of getting early Romans or rarities.</b> If there were any obviously valuable pieces in a collection of uncleaned coins (like 1st century sestertii), they would be removed just like any gold would be, since they could get far more for it than they would keeping it in an uncleaned lot. First and second century coins generally look far different than those of later eras, so they, too are usually picked out (you can sometimes find lots specifically of these uncleaned, but they&#039;re usually in poor condition and more expensive). Occationally you might find a worn first century quadrans, but aside from that, don&#039;t expect anything that old unless the lot specifically says that&#039;s what it&#039;s comprised of. What you&#039;re going to find are common Roman coins from around AD 270-400, with the vast majority from the Constantinian dynasty, followed by the Valentinian and Theodosian dynasties. You may also find occational Byzantine coins and barbarous imitations of Roman coins.</li> </ul><p>That&#039;s it off the top of my head. I may add more things late if anything else comes to mind.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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