Wasted $75 on a fake Roman coin from an online auction

I saw this coin listed as a 'genuine Roman denarius' on a site I use a lot, and the seller had good feedback. I paid $75 plus shipping, thinking I was getting a good deal for my collection. When it arrived, the weight felt wrong and the details looked too sharp, like a modern copy. I took it to a local museum event last week and an expert confirmed it was a fake in about two seconds. Has anyone else been burned by fake artifacts online, and how do you check them before buying?

4 comments

4 Comments

brooket432mo ago

Checking weight is good, but wear can be faked too. You need to look at the style of the lettering and the flow of the metal. Cast fakes often have a bubbly surface under a magnifier that real struck coins don't have.

anthonynelson12h ago

Actually that's a really good point about the bubbly surface thing, that's a detail most people miss entirely. But I gotta push back a little on the lettering style point - that's actually one of the hardest things to fake consistently. Real minting dies leave crisp, sharp edges that casting just can't replicate because the metal flows differently. I've seen some scary good fakes where the weight and wear look perfect, but under a loop the letters have that soft, rounded look because they were poured, not struck. The magnifier trick is probably the most reliable thing you can do without sending it to a grading service.

the_jenny2mo ago

Always check weight and wear against known examples.

jake_patel2mo ago

Man, that's so true for everything now. It's like you need a second layer of checks for anything of value. Even with stuff like sneakers or concert tickets, the fakes get the easy stuff right first.