Paid $80 for a rusty Roman coin on eBay, turned out to be a fake

I got excited and bought a Roman bronze coin from a seller in Bulgaria claiming it was from 300 AD. Spent $80 on it before showing it to a guy at the local archaeology club meetup here in Portland. He pulled out a magnet and it stuck right to it - total modern cast fake. Anyone else get burned buying artifacts online?

3 comments

3 Comments

leo_black7623h ago

Damn, that magnet trick is brutal lol. I feel for you man, eighty bucks is a lot to drop on a hunk of junk. I got burned myself a few years back on a supposed medieval seal matrix from a UK seller, turned out to be some resin cast painted to look like lead. It's so easy to fall for these things when the photos look legit and the seller has good feedback. Honestly, the whole online ancient coin market feels like a minefield sometimes, especially with those Bulgarian and Balkan sellers. Hopefully you can get your money back through eBay's buyer protection, but I know that's not always a guarantee.

juliarodriguez23h ago

Did I buy a whole lot of "ancient" coins from Bulgaria once that turned out to be made from melted-down soda cans? Yeah, guilty as charged. At least your hunk of junk is a good story, mine's just a pile of shiny trash.

xena_bailey1822h ago

Had a buddy who swore he bought a Roman coin from a guy in Bulgaria on Facebook marketplace of all places. Paid like fifty bucks for it, and it turned out to be a flattened bottle cap with some weird stamp on it. He kept it on his desk as a joke for years though, said it was his "Emperor Trajan bottle cap." The thing was so obviously fake it was almost impressive.