Dealing with antiquities and ancient coins, more than once I have been asked if the items I offer for sale are actual items from the past, i.e. geniune ancient artifacts. My answer is always yes because that's the only kind of ancient artifacts I know.

It is understandable why people today are so cautious when it comes to ancient artifacts. Lately, we have witnessed repulsive "Antiquity Dealers" get so many headlines as "Fake Dealers".

What can you do to feel safer when you approach this subject?

On eBay, the most important thing to help you decide whether a particular seller is a decent human being is his/hers feedback. Don't trust sayings like "I have been in this business for many years". Just read what other people have to say. You can fool all people some of the time and some people all the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time. The more positive feedbacks a seller has, the more credible he/she is. A very low percentage of negative feedbacks means either a retaliation by a revengeful costumer, or simply an honest mistake by the seller. Even the most renowned museums around the world were fooled by a crook. A truly honest seller will accept back any item that was found to be a forgery for a full refund.

Ask for a COA! All legitimate antiquity dealers carry Certificates Of Authenticity and will offer them free of charge with every item they sell. Yes, some dealers will actually ask you for money for a certificate. Why does that sound suspicious? How many sellers have you seen saying "Guarenteed Authentic" but will not offer any certificate to back it up? Ask them: Guarenteed by whom? Are you an authorized antiquity dealer, what organization do you belong to?

Things to be particularly suspicious of:

If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. An EF coin or a fantastic artifact by a seller with 0 feedbacks is something to be carful of. Again, even the most credible dealers around the world might get it wrong at one point but that's the magic about ancient artifacts. It was not produced in a factory in china 2 weeks ago so experience in this business is everything.

Some people actually look for cheap modern replicas and of course you can find these too on eBay but some of the sellers either 'forget' to mention the fact that a certain item is a replica and might add that piece of information later on or simply mention it with one small word such as 'copy' in the middle of a 1000 word paragraph on how amazing the item is, they might even use a wonderful phrase such as 'Authentic Replica'.  If you do sell modern replicas please mention it in the title and with clear text in the description.

If we all insist on what we deserve we might make it a little harder on charlatans and maybe even make the ancient antiquities market a little safer and really enjoy the wonderful past.

Thank you.