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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 3359738, member: 19463&quot;]Very wrong!&nbsp; Old silver means nothing.&nbsp; There are several fakes struck on common denarii.&nbsp; It is no big thing to sacrifice a VG Septimius Severus to make a Pescennius Niger or a Philip to get a Silbannicus.&nbsp; One that worries me most is Regalianus which is usually overstruck on earlier coins so a faker could knock these out by the roll and not even have to fire up a furnace to melt the stock.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I do disagree with Barry on one thing:100% false is usually possible but 100% genuine has proven a stumbling block in the past. Our experts (of which Barry is top notch) do their best to keep up with the best of the fakers but every so often we see something new.&nbsp; The best example of this in my mind was the first wave of Black <span style="color: #ff4d4d">(not Dead - thanks Volodya, I had a brain once but that was a while back)</span> Sea Hoard diobols.&nbsp; Included in my &#039;collection&#039; is a card ad from a well known seller labeled &#039;1989 Special Offerings&#039; listing for only $500 a pair (one of each type) of what was then &#039;proven&#039; genuine by some metallurgists and experts that shortly thereafter became a great embarrassment to those who trusted the wrong experts.&nbsp; I do not know how many of these $500 sets were sold and refunded.&nbsp; It happened.&nbsp; It will happen again.&nbsp; Those who must have 100% certainty in something should collect fakes.&nbsp; Those, we can prove beyond even the most unreasonable doubt.</p><p><br /></p><p>,,,,one more thing.&nbsp; I still will turn down a coin that has been listed by or certified by any expert when I am unable to convince myself that the coin is correct.&nbsp; I may be wrong 999 times out of 1000 BUT I am not put in the position of later wanting to sell a coin and not being able to do so without worry on the matter.&nbsp; I own some fakes I know are fake (Black Museum); I may have fakes in my collection of which I am not aware and I certainly have a few coins I would not sell to someone who knows less than I do about the matter.&nbsp; If I own a coin that someone more capable than I says is good, I could sell it &#039;as is&#039; <u>to them</u> but not to most people.&nbsp; I may not have the expertise to recognize every good coin as good and may miss a good deal BUT I prefer to buy coins that make me feel good and leave the others to others more adventuresome than I.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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