Hello,
I recently purchased these tremissis coins from someone (okay, namely “ivcollectibles”) thinking they’re fine as I had heard of the user name, only to find out later that I recognized this person from a list of notorious fake sellers, not from one of trustworthy ones.
And I think I should return them, but before I do, I would like some opinions from you to make sure. They look (and sound) rather fake to me, but I’m always a sceptic either way. They both have passed some tests (the specific gravity wasn’t even wrong, to my surprise) and, honestly, I’m at a bit of a loss here. Can anyone help me? Could they possibly be authentic?
Even if they’re genuine pieces I don’t think the seller’s identification is correct, is it...?
#1:
diameter: 14.5mm
thickness: 0.6mm
weight: 1.31g
density: 14.5555556
• not magnetic; does not float
• Maurice Tiberius (582-602) according to the seller
#2:
diameter: 14.5mm
thickness: 0.6mm
weight: 1.44g
density: 18.00
• not magnetic; does not float
• Justin I (518-527) according to the seller
I don't know about the authenticity, but they're probably gold at least.
The coins are relatively valuable and very light so it won't be a big trouble for a crook to put, let's say, 35$ of gold into a fake coin he's going to sell for much more.
You really should try to authenticate coins before you buy them. You’ve asked for help on almost every gold coin you’ve bought because you don’t know if they are genuine.
I haven’t been keeping close track, but you’ve already bought one fake. What happens when you spend $300 on a coin that turns out to be fake? Ebay might be good at getting your money back but one day you’ll get burned badly.
Knowledge is king, don’t rely on someone else’s attributions.
Thank you so much! Those are very good pieces of advice, I’ll keep them in mind.
Considering their weight (and density) and the seller’s reputation, I think that is likely the case. Should have known they could make fakes in real gold. Almost fooled, wasn’t I...
Most of my important (and often expensive) purchases are from vcoins or sellers like Holding History so I didn’t have to ask about those; the ones I impulsively bid on (I should stop that, I know), however...
As I’m still knew to gold coins (I got my first – not counting the fanams and 2 Shu Kin – about a month ago, more or less), I just feel like cramming information and to me experience seems to be the best way to learn, especially when eBay has the Money Back Guarantee in case an item turned out to be fake. And if it’s real, I could either just keep it or sell it on Mercari or YahooAuc, even making some profit, anyway, and at this point spent money is just spilt milk (which is the scary part of this, mhm). I’ve always thought gold would feel different, for the lack of a better word, but just having one — one that’s 100% genuine – I know that it’s not that significant. I don’t know how to put it, but yeah.
Another problem is that I’m (contradictorily?) highly sceptical AND foolhardy, as you may see. And inconfident, rather, so I constantly need to make sure or else can’t go on. So...
I would argue that cramming isn't the best. according to your twitter, you're 21, that probably means you have a lot more time than money, use that time to research before buying a coin. The common adage is buy the book before the coin, and in this day and age, the internet is that book. There are dozens of auctions that have records of what they've sold including pictures and descriptions, sites like acsearch and coinarchives that let you access millions of items. If you've exhausted those resources, google has plenty of books archived for free or at a low cost as an e-book or even links to buy a physical copy.
There's more information available today than anytime in history, don't let it go to waste.
