Bought a $150 'authentic' Roman coin online and it turned out to be a modern fake

I saw it on a marketplace site and the seller had a convincing story about it being from a dig in Pompeii. Got it checked by a professor at the local university museum, and he said the patina was all wrong and the casting marks were a dead giveaway. Has anyone else been burned buying artifacts online, and how do you verify them?

3 comments

3 Comments

hayes.tara2mo agoMost Upvoted

Ugh, that's the worst feeling. Did you pay with a credit card or through the site's own payment system? You can usually open a dispute for "item not as described" and get your money back. For next time, I only buy from sellers who provide a real, written certificate from a known expert, not just a story. The good ones will have that.

the_robert2mo ago

That sucks, man. Pompeii story is a huge red flag, those finds are super controlled. Did the seller have any other coins for sale, or was it just that one? A lot of fakes come from bulk listings where everything looks a little too perfect.

simonmoore16d ago

Swear my buddy bought one just like that off eBay and the "silver" started PEELING.