There are many things to look at and learn about the authenticators we expect to spend money with and long before we send off that first artifact with payment. We have the technology to perform those investigations like we've never had before....we have the internet. We can "google" them and visit their websites, we can access the chat boards of the countless arrowhead related organizations out there and keep up with what is being said as relates to authentication. If we take the time to perform those investigations thoroughly, each of us can become proficient about who to use and who to avoid.

A lot of clues about who the person is and what their actual abilities and qualifications are can be deduced by just carefully analyzing the contents of any documents they have already issued on other artifacts. Review the COA’s on ebay or elsewhere and learn how to interpret the clues they provide:

1. Does the COA include all the contact information of the authenticator? Full name, address, phone number, email and most importantly, has the authenticator signed the finished product. Unsigned certs or certs with little to no contact info are a sure sign something’s not kosher. I would never buy and won’t accept papers that do not have proper authenticator identification on them. I’ve seen COA’s issued by CMAEG, ANACA, IAGA, Authenticators of the World, Relic Authenticators of America, HD Enterprises and others mostly unsigned or signed with an illegible scrawl and no printed readable name under it. No contact information and no way to track down the so called authenticator. If I buy a collection that contains these, I take a picture of them for future reference and promptly destroy them. If the points they certified are fake, I destroy them too. If a point is authentic...the authenticator made a lucky guess on that one. I've gotten stuck with a couple of these COA’s and none of the pieces papered was authentic or were re-chips.

2. Beware, the more flashy the COA the more likely its going to be on a fake artifact especially if the authenticator contact info is missing. Gold stars, blue ribbons, elaborate seals, all kinds of graphics etc. tend to be placed on a cert to divert attention from the artifact or the authenticators’ lack of acceptable credentials. Just remember, all that pretty paper or fancy titles doesn't make the piece authentic. Nor does the cost of the evaluation. Your just as likely to receive an inaccurate evaluation from a guy that charges the most as you will from the least expensive apprentice authenticator out there. Reviewing certified pieces listed on ebay will help you identify who is least accurate in determining point type, material used, location found etc. In example; an obsidian northern side notch typed as a Cahokia and found in Georgia isn’t just improbable, it hasn’t ever happened. If your looking at a piece of dover and the authenticator says its horse creek or if your seeing a jacks reef pentagonal and the authenticator says it’s an eastern early triangle, start perking up an paying attention to his other COA’s. If the guy can’t accurately type or identify the material, how accurate are his judgments on authenticity? The more you educate yourself on materials and point types, the better decisions you make when purchasing artifacts from others.

3. Is the COA serialized and does the authenticator maintain a data base of all COA’s he’s issued? A non serialized form probably means the authenticator does not keep records. So what have you paid for? The piece cannot be considered a registered point because there’s no record of it anywhere but in your document protector. I often wonder how good the records are of those that do serialize their forms. It just might be a good idea to contact your authenticator of choice and find out. And while your about it, you might want to ask him what will become of those records upon his death. I like the concept of the Who’s Who and some of the other records keeping efforts out there, but there is still no repository for authenticated artifact records. Another point to be made is that just because the piece was published on the cover of, or a featured article in, or as having come from a particular collection in some magazine, book or auction description doesn’t mean its guaranteed authentic. Its far too easy to attribute an artifact to those publications or collections when it wasn’t or was but still fake. I get a real kick out of the dealer who’s only selling point is a reference to his artifact having been published on page so and so in some arrowhead guide. The intent of the writers of those books was to provide examples of point types and give an idea of their approximate age and value. Those authors usually aren’t in a position to determine if they are all authentic.

4. Where is the authenticator located and what is his experience with artifacts from outside his immediate region? This is one area that everyone should pay particular attention to. You depend on these guys to know the material their looking at and to make a decision based on that knowledge. How accurate is an authenticator living on the eastern seaboard when evaluating rocks found on the high plains or far west? Maybe he spent his youth hunting arrowheads in that region(s) and retired to his current address and maybe not. A wise collector would be finding out. The next time you see a COA issued by an authenticator from outside the area the piece originated from at least think twice before counting out the cash. Remember, the crook trying to get that cash knows all to well that when his fakes are killed, the easiest way to get them papered is to send them to someone not familiar with the material or techniques used to disguise them.

4.1 Like all trades, there are 3 levels of ability with authentication. There is the apprentice, a beginner who should be learning while under the tutelage of a journeyman or master. He generates COA’s for his immediate area only and if his seniors agree with the assessment, one of them counter signs. There is the journeyman who has advanced beyond the need for immediate supervision but still calls upon the master when in doubt. His COA‘s do not require the masters counter signature unless the evaluation is challenged. There is no longer a master for this particular trade. He died a while back and sadly, no one comes close to filling those shoes. He could be replaced if the more experienced authenticators were to form a congress, share their knowledge and compete for the position by demonstrating their abilities to the rest. That won’t happen as long as they each get the kind of money their making operating independently.

4.2 The down side to all the computerized technology we have is that now any hack can learn to use it to set himself up in business for just about anything and make their living without any other special skills or knowledge. Unfortunately, too many of those hacks are anointing themselves as artifact authenticators and picking the pockets of arrowhead collectors that don’t take the time or make an effort to arm themselves with knowledge about what their paying hard earned money for. There have been some high dollar artifact auctions in the last year and many more in years past. In every single one of them, I’ll guarantee you that a good portion of the stuff sold was fake. I’ve heard of one particular piece that sold for over $100,000 and was certified as authentic but was not. The buyer of that artifact and the owners of many of the other certified pieces will pigeon hole their treasures thinking for many years to come that they own priceless objects when in fact they were robbed just as surely as if they had a gun put to their heads. These deep pocketed buyers brandish their sales receipts around more than the artifact. Hard to tell if their proud of the point or just bragging about how much money they have to piss away. When those owners pass, we can only hope that during the process of redistribution that someone qualified re-evaluates every piece and weeds out the fakes. Of course the owner is going to keep and probably frame the sales records of his pieces and these will be passed along too, and during the redistribution process someone’s going to try and get at least the previous sales amount out of each regardless of authenticity. Sales receipts are not COA’s, COA’s don’t always guarantee authenticity, and you know when a seller is lying….his lips are moving.

There is more to be discussed on this subject than time, allotted space or my ability to maintain a train of thought allows so…knowing that I’m leaving you with a cliff hanger, I’ll end it here and revisit it after I’ve done more homework and collected my thoughts.

In the meantime, try a little experiment for me. Each day for the next week, when you log onto ebay and start looking for arrowheads to buy, keep a scratch pad beside you and keep a stroke count by authenticators' name for all artifacts with COA’s. Also, keep track of how many different sellers are offering artifacts from each authenticator. After the week is up and you know who has the most COA’s being issued right now, but your asking yourself why you did it, you weren’t paying close attention to minute details. Try it again for another week. You’ll figure it out sooner or later.