It is good to have a knowledge of coin's before purchasing coin's at E-bay or any auction site. You will find some seller's here that know nothing about the coin's they are selling except that they are here to make the most money possible. One rule of thumb is if you buy grab bag's do not expect to get your money's worth. I have personally spent 121.95 on 10 lot's of coin's here on E-bayt and wound up with about 10.00 worth of change that has no numismatic value at all. You will find AT coin's AT= Artifical Toning. Although beautiful to look at they have lessened the over value of the coin. No good drading company such as NGC and PCGS will grade AT coin's. Also old coin's that still have a real nice shine to them have more than likely been cleaned which also lessen's the value of the coin. If you are buying silver coin's for melt down then it does not matter. You will also find fake coin's on E-bay. Although an awesome site they really do not have time to inspect everything here. If you feel something is out of line with a coin or a dealer feel free to report it to E-bay. I would suggest that new people to the coin world and older experienced people buy certified coin's only. I would never again buy from any one that states gold in every 50 lot's. Or buy ten lot's and get a morgan. It is just a front to encourage you to bid. No matter how fine the coin is and how badly you want it. Put it in yout watching list and think about each and every bid before hand as it is a commitment to purchase. Ancient coin's are an awesome idea and I have been there also. It takes about 4 week's to properly clean ancient coin's. The ones I wound up with looked like peices of copper pounded out with a hammer. Big let down. If you want an ancient coin buy an ancient coin instead of alot of promises of gold found. When they do archealogical dog's as soon as a gold coin is found it is logged and kept for historical purposes, and not put in grab bag's on e-bay for 10 or 20 alot. The gold in grab bag's are foreign gold and has no real value at all. I won't take time or space to tell about gold but it is not going to be found in a ancient coin grab bag. They are sold for a very high price. So be very careful in that area. I sound like a grouch but I quickly learn the way's of the hustler's. If you want ancient coin's buy ancient coin's from a reputable dealer. If you want good ole american coin's try to buy slabbed coin's and be very careful who you purchase them from. Some have gold in every lot. With 5 to 25 slabbed coin's. You will pay a nice price but you will get gold from most seller's like that and will get slabbed coin's. Another rule of thumb is read feedback for the seller and check his history. How many user names they have had in the past and think why did they change user names? Alot of the good feedback you will find on grab bag deal's are from people that do not want to take time to argue the point as they feel a 20 dollar lose is no big deal. Or they are good feedback from people that are new to coin's and will think they got a good deal when they in reality got burnt. I am fairly new to E-bay but in the past few month's have been burnt for about 200 dollar's. I am on S.S.D.I. and 200 bux is a load of cash. So take it from me and be very careful when coin shopping here or any other auction site. Thank you for reading my view's and if you don't take any wooden nickel's. If you get any please send them to NGC or PCGS. They will be impressed! Peace friend's and God Bless