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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 4351316, member: 19463&quot;]I see nothing in the photo that would tip me off but finding an exact match is a problem that far exceeds our hopes.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I have a story told before.&nbsp; Long, long ago in a coin show in Baltimore I was looking through a junk box of a &#039;big name&#039; seller.&nbsp; When I was handling this As the dealer said, &quot;I&#039;ll give it to you for $8 if you can tell me who it is.&quot;</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1101252[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>I said, &quot;Clodius Albinus&quot;, paid my $8 and left with my prize.&nbsp; When I got home and looked more closely, I noticed the bright silver spot on the reverse edge at 10 o&#039;clock and realized the coin was a lead cast painted copper.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>When I saw the seller at the next show, I told him of the matter.&nbsp; He replied, &quot;Even so, it was worth what you paid for it.&quot;&nbsp; He was right.&nbsp; I saved a lot of money never again buying from him.&nbsp; I did however have one more contact with him.&nbsp; I bought a somewhat beat up but rare coin of Julia Domna from a seller then unknown to me but later discovered to be of questionable integrity and also placed on my list to avoid.&nbsp; Researching the coin I saw what I believed to be a match in a printed auction catalog a few years earlier by the Clodius Albinus seller. At a show, I told him of the match and asked what he saw in the matter.&nbsp; He explained that it was probably the same coin since my coin had all the beauty marks of the one he sold and a few extra and his buyer was&nbsp; &quot;famous for cleaning and ruining coins&quot;.&nbsp; I continued to doubt the coin but the death of the seller made returning it impossible even if he would have refunded it.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Later, I discovered that the coin was ex Dattari/Savio (that made me feel better) identifiable from the pencil rubbing in that reference.&nbsp; About that time I considered sending it off to be expertised but decided that spending $50 on a $100 coin was not cost effective and I would never sell the coin anyway.&nbsp; My coin is the bottom one below.&nbsp; The top coin showed up in a CNG sale.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1101255[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>The CNG coin showed the marks shown on the old catalog and in the D/S rubbing but not the extra ones on my coin.&nbsp; I assume that it was the mother from which my coin was cast but I have no idea when or by whom.&nbsp; That, I would really like to know!</p><p><br /></p><p>Again, I am out the money (this time $100) but have learned about that much from the experience.&nbsp; Tuition is expensive.&nbsp; I am not a fast learner.&nbsp; I have another coin I question to the point I could not sell them to anyone but a dealer who claimed to know more than I do and believed I was wrong doubting them.&nbsp; I am waiting for CNG to publish their mothers so I will, again, be shown to be the fool.&nbsp; That, too, is part of the hobby as I know it.&nbsp; I could send them off to get opinions but I have not.&nbsp; Maybe, someday, I will know but I really doubt it.&nbsp; We tend to hope for the best even when we should know better.&nbsp; It is also wrong to condemn good coins for problems we imagine but that does not mean that we have to buy coins in this class.&nbsp; I pity the guys who make a living expertising coins.&nbsp; They have to deal with making close calls and can&#039;t just walk away from them.&nbsp; I am, slowly, getting better.&nbsp; At my current rate, I&#039;ll be pretty good when I celebrate my 100th anniversary in the hobby (2060 give or take a few years). <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie3" alt=":(" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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