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Pro tip: don't spend $120 on a "guaranteed" Roman coin from an eBay seller in Ohio
I bought a Constantine the Great follis for $120 from a seller with 4,000 feedback, and when it showed up it was a cast copy with a seam on the edge you could see under a 10x loupe. Took it to a shop in Baltimore and the guy laughed, said the real ones go for $15 to $30 at coin shows and this fake was worth about two bucks in brass. Lesson is I should have bought a $6 uncleaned lot and done the work myself instead of trusting a fancy listing photo. Anyone else get burned on ancient coins before you learned what to look for?
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ben20621d ago
Did you ever notice how the fake stuff always looks better in the listing pics than the real thing does in your hand? I got into ancients about five years back and my first buy was a "silver" denarius that turned out to be a fourree, basically a bronze core with a thin silver skin that was flaking off around the edges. Cost me $80 and the seller swore it was a metal detecting find from a field in Bulgaria. Now I just stick to junk bins at shows where I can hold the coin and squint at it myself before handing over cash.
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