Last update: January 8, 2009

The purpose of this guide is to provide some discussion about the judean coin and artifact dealers on ebay and to alert folks to fakes that may be for sale. All information within this guide is based upon my perceptions. I encourage anyone to email me with their perceptions and I will include them in this guide and reference them appropriately.

As fakes come up, I will update the guide and list the current fake right at the beginning. I will also place questionable transactions at the beginning as I observe them.

The guide is not an exhaustive list of sellers but rather, only lists sellers I have observed over time or have actually purchased from and have thus far chronicled.

QUESTIONABLE TRANSACTION JAN 8, 2009: Item # 260331933810.

The item up for bid were 3 very poor quality "widows mites". The final bid price of $38 seems outrageous. This dealer, Historicalresearchinstitute is not a familiar seller to me. The seller stressed "Jesus" in his description and could account for the high price. The small amount of research I am able to perform indicates that the winning bidder has a history of purchasing from this seller. This buyer may just me naive however, another bidder had sent the price to $37 prior.

It is my belief that an item with "UNKNOWN" in the coin description is often a ploy. This differs significantly from an "UNATTRIBUTED" designation. The unattributed designation means that the dealer has good reason to believe that the coin does not match any known sources for identification. The unknown designation is a scam designation meant to keep the seller from liability and to increase the probability that a buyer's greed will lead them to bid high.

The following list includes dealers with at least 1 instance of an "UNKNOWN" designation occurring:

Genuine-coins item # 380090874600

The following rates sellers as legitimate, questionable, or unethical. Since the main purpose of the guide is to bust unethical dealers, I'll start with them.

Shirel's game is to sell replica Bar Kochba coins as authentic. On Dec. 21, 2008 item # 320326248232 sold for $29.99. I tried to warn folks about this and maybe this is why it got a low bid. Contrast this with item # 320319620938 which sold for $82.18! A cursory glance makes it obvious that the replica coins were struck from the same die. This guy should be thrown off a cliff.

Bestbuy has been observed to switch his merchandise after an aution has begun using the same item numbers. Of course, this is done prior to a bid being submitted. I do not believe ebay would give the opportunity to allow a seller to switch the item after bidding has begun. However, if you are watching the item you need to be careful as suddenly, the item can change from one thing to another without any indication that this is so. For example, item # 370136968841 began its listing as a Mattathias 4 prutah coin and three days into the auction, became a roman glass fragment. Item # 370137405988 had the same thing happen. Beware this seller.

Amphora is owned by David Hendin, perhaps the most well-known judean coin dealer. He catches very good bids so one often pays a bit of a premium for his goods. Sometimes, you can get a nice coin at a very nice price. He ships 1st class with delivery confirmation, leaves feedback very rapidly, and is altogether problem free.

Zuzim is owned by Isadore Goldstein, a very well respected dealer in holy land artifacts and coins. His ebay operation is fairly new so he hasn't been catching the bids that he will once he gets more established here. On his home site, his prices are a bit high but his quality tends to be high too.

Westwood offers some very nice coins and does not catch the bids of sellers like Amphora so there is value here. I know of nothing bad about this seller.

Shyanchor sells some nice low priced coins and does not catch very good bids so value can be had. His photographs are exceptional and appear to be made while using a very bright light. This will tend to make the coin appear lustrous but upon closer inspection, one often can find a flaw that reduces the value of the coin dramatically. Still, seems to have nice wares for the price.

Ancart sells lower end holy land artifacts. They are entirely legitimate but do not expect to find a nicer piece. However, even a lesser oil lamp is still pretty nice to have.

Cointessa sells some nice coins and can catch some good bids. Ships from Jerusalem by registered mail.