Wasted $300 on a fake Roman coin at a flea market

I was at a flea market outside Chicago last month and bought a 'ancient Roman denarius' for $300. The seller had a whole story about it being from Emperor Trajan's reign, and I got caught up in the moment. Got home, looked up the details online, and realized it was a modern replica made in Bulgaria. The patina was wrong and the lettering was off. Has anyone else gotten burned buying coins from questionable vendors at these markets?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowan72516d ago

Join a coin forum before spending that kind of money next time.

tyler616d ago

Yeah, for real! I got burned once buying a "rare" Morgan dollar off eBay that turned out to be a cleaned-up common date. I wish I had just asked around on a coin forum first before I pulled the trigger. What worked for me was posting a "thinking about buying this, what do you guys think?" thread on a big forum like CoinTalk, and a few guys with more experience told me it was overpriced and pointed me to a better deal. Saved me a good chunk of change and I probably wouldn't have learned that otherwise.

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