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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;AnemicOak, post: 205578, member: 5224&quot;]There are certainly people out there who make a great living screwing collectors with fakes.&nbsp; That&#039;s why it&#039;s important to buy from reputable sources like dealers on VCoins (no time limit for returns on items later determined fake).&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The big time auctions CNG, Gemini, Triton, Markov, etc (regular auctions with printed catalogs &amp; buyers fees, etc., not eBay) have some of the most knowledgeable folks in the business on staff to check over their lots, but still fakes make it into those auctions (&amp; a lot of times you have only a limited time to request a return if a coin is thought fake), most of the time they&#039;re caught ahead of the auction, but I doubt they always are.&nbsp; A certification service like David Sear&#039;s is going to be a much more accurate &amp; worthwhile way to determine authenticity than any of the TPG&#039;s out there.&nbsp; The British Museum won&#039;t guarantee anything, but will (or at least would) take a look at something questionable &amp; offer an opinion too.&nbsp; Sometimes just posting the auction photo will be enough for someone to help you out (it&#039;s very doubtful you&#039;ll find one of these outside of an auction).</p><p><br /></p><p>One of the biggest way to avoid fakes is by just seeing lots &amp; lots of coins and really knowing your particular area of interest.&nbsp; Also pay attention to the fakes section on Forum Ancient Coins (you can get a good education right there).&nbsp; The Forgery Network is another place to look around &amp; Ancients.info is starting to get more fakes posts too.&nbsp; It&#039;s quite scary how good some of the high end fakes are.</p><p><br /></p><p>An Alexander coin the size of a dime would be a drachm &amp; $40 for one 25 years ago sounds right, probably.&nbsp; You can get very nice VF-EF examples for as low as $100-$200 now depending on where it was minted, etc. (some can cost quite a bit more).</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Hope some of that&#039;s helpful[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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