The slabbed ancient coin perception—misconception?

Ex-military members who are common, non-Ranger-SEAL-Green Beret, etc is nearly 100%. That makes the family history @Deacon Ray is sharing that much more meaningful. Not that our opinion should matter to his family, but his grandfather's honesty and integrity is refreshing in today's stolen valor society.

The number of phony heroes out there also make it nearly impossible to believe anyone's story of heroism. What makes it worse is a lot wounded warrior charities don't confirm a veteran's story and don't make it public if they get swindled. So, people are never informed that someone is a fake.

There is a guy I worked with a few years back that told everyone he is an Air Force PJ and his missions are classified so no record of it will exist (Red Flag #1). He's built like a grocer, not a soldier but that isn't a fair indicator. The Green Beret who ran a training exercise for us during my time at Defense Language Institute had a physique akin to Homer Simpson.
He also claimed that on Friday he went to Rickenbacker, flew from there to Afganistan or Iraq, completed his mission and flew back. The flight time alone didn't work out (Red Flag #2). The guy would lie about whether it was raining outside while standing next to an open window (Red Flag #3).

The records being classified (this along should prove someone is a phony), and considering that the chances of meeting a real Navy SEAL is about the same as meeting Elvis, then @Sallent had every reason to believe a tattooed, cigar smoker was a fraud. After all, the chance is that every supposed SOG warriors Are fakes.

So, it still amazes me that people fall for the phony heroes out there. In some cases, Grandfathers have their wife, kids, and grandkids buffaloed into believing they were a war hero.

That's why it surprises me that people are so skeptical about ancient coins. They buy into a ridiculous story that the couch potato uncle was on the team that killed Osama and then question whether a coin bought from a reputable anceint dealer is real.

 

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I remember reading in a "Airpower" magazine about luftwaffe pilots scores in WW2. When "Bubi" Erich Hartmann surrendered to the Americans, he was asked about his decorations. He explained to them that he got the Knight's Cross/ Oakleaves/ Swords/ Diamonds for shooting down 352 enemy aircraft in combat, from 42-45. They found this a fantasy, how could a German pilot have had 352/ compared to the top USAAF ace (Bong) 40! Later on they found these reports were real, and that there were 35 with 150 victories or more Kurt Welter flying a ME-262 nightfighter is the world's all time top jet ace with 63 victories. These will records will never be equalled.