I have been collecting and selling coins for many years and have been collecting East Asian coins (China, Korea, and Japan) for many years.  As most of you know that collecting genuine coin from Korea is extremly hard, for myself was scamed several times.  After been scamed several times, I've decided to be more careful.  In order to collect genuine coins:  1. Look for graded (slabbed) coins from such companies as NGC, PCGS, ANACS, etc.  If these third parties slabbed a coin, it is genuine. All of my Korean coins are slabbed by NGC, and when I buy Korean coins, I only look for NGC or PCGS slabbed coins.  2.  Be patient.  Slabbed coins by third party grading companies many not come up on ebay a lot, but they do.  3.  Watch out for sellers from foreign countries such as China, Singapore, etc.  All of my scams came from sellers from foreign countries.  Try to stay with US sellers if possible, for it will be easier for you to get your money back if you decided you did not want to coin.  4.  Make sure to ask about the condition of the coin even though the scaned imiage looks really good.  I had too many coins came back in the "body bags" from NGC because of damages, scratches, and/or cleaned.  If the seller cannot give you a clear answer, don't buy it.  If you want to buy it, make sure the seller has a good return policy.  5.  It is extremly hard to know if  Korean coins dated late 1890s to early 1900s are orginal or cleaned coins.  I recommend following #1 and #2. If they are cleaned or damaged, you can always submitted to NCS for preservation and encapsulation.  Thank you for reading my guide.