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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 8194315, member: 110350&quot;]I would strongly disagree with your 5% figure. I think it&#039;s higher.</p><p><br /></p><p>A few random thoughts.</p><p><br /></p><p>Coins aside, I do think it might be accurate to say that the majority of antiquities on Ebay are fake! Especially the purported ancient Egyptian antiquities. There are only a handful of reputable antiquities dealers there. Look for those with independent websites as well.</p><p><br /></p><p>One way to avoid fake ancient coins on Ebay is never to buy what looks like an amazing bargain -- a Julius Caesar denarius for only $25.00?? Wow! Compare prices first with what similar coins go for on VCoins or MA-Shops.</p><p><br /></p><p>Another way is only to buy slabbed ancient coins, particularly if they were slabbed by NGC. The problem is that most are priced anywhere from twice to 10x fair market value. Some sellers are willing to bargain.</p><p><br /></p><p>Finally, there are some VCoins and MA-Shops dealers who also sell on Ebay. Not a guarantee, but it&#039;s some assurance of reputability.</p><p><br /></p><p>There&#039;s no reason to be coy: the two dealers on V-Coins most known for fake desert patina on Late Roman bronzes are Athena and Zurqieh. There&#039;s a Spanish dealer named Prado most of whose Late Roman bronze coins have a suspiciously identical green patina. I know nothing else about them.</p><p><br /></p><p>Zurqieh also sells a lot of antiquities, which do appear to be genuine. They&#039;re in Abu Dhabi, I believe. Who knows how they get their supply?</p><p><br /></p><p>Athena&#039;s practices are particularly unfortunate, because they have a huge inventory of sometimes very nice coins. But the problems arising from what they do to genuine coins go far beyond fake desert patina on bronze coins, and extend to applying some sort of chemical process to almost all their silver coins, resulting in what I consider an extremely fake-looking bluish tint. Which, fortunately, can be removed.</p><p><br /></p><p>An example of a Hadrian Aegyptos denarius I purchased from Athena.</p><p><br /></p><p>As purchased:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1435212[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>As it looks now, after removing the fake patina -- a lot of which actually faded away all by itself within a few months, before I did anything at all!:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1435211[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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