Here's the whole thing in one block.
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Hello, this my first post.
I've been buying antiquities for 15 years, mostly Roman military
artifacts, as a side to ancient Roman re-enacting. I buy artifacts to
display at events, or to assist me in casting/fabricating
reproductions for actual use by hobbyists.
Most of my collecting has been done through storefront and coin show
dealers, and Vcoins. I'm glad to see that a high percentage of these
dealers are on this list or are recommended by this group.
I recently started using e-bay -- I actually found some good items
from reputable dealers, as well as saw an ad to join this group
there. But before I joined the group bought 2 common fakes from 2
different dealers on the "avoid" list.
One was a horse brooch from draconarius_1, another was a Wolf &
Romulus & Remus brooch from karakalas. The link to the album in the
group photos are below.
I have a question for the group. Are these items fake because:
a. They are fantasy pieces not resembling a known ancient Roman design;
b. They are more or less of an authentic design, but incorrectly made;
c. The patinas are obviously artificially created;
d. They are clever copies of originals, but are almost certainly fake
because of the abundance of items like it for sale;
e. They are probably not original because the dealer is disreputable
and sells coins or other antiquities that are known to be fake;
d. Some combination of the above, or other reasons?
I ask this because authenticity has different shades of meaning to
different enthusiasts. To collectors, the original/fake determination
is the difference between owning something valuable or owning a piece
of junk. To reenactors, who use copies of all sorts of things, the
importance is placed on how close to an original a reproduction is.
If the brooches I bought aren't fantasy pieces, I can just de-pickle
them, shine them up and give them to someone to wear.
But I still don't like being lied to, I regret giving money to
crooks, and I won't buy anything from them again, even if they happen
to offer something that is absolutely original. I can still give a
bad feedback to karakalas -- I will ask for suggestions on this in my
next post . . .
-- Mark Graef
http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/Ancientartifacts/photos/browse/29c5?c=
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