"If you need an opinion from a discussion board, don't buy it. Buy coins you know are good or buy from sellers you know are good. If you don't know either, don't buy."
The above is probably the wisest post on this site in its
history. I don't care how rich you are, expensive coins (like
Galba) that are frequently faked are a really bad place to begin your
collection of
ancient coins unless you are entrusting yourself to someone who has the experience gained by handling thousands of similar coins. As beginners we all make some mistakes and, slowly, we all gain experience that enables us to venture a short distance off the porch. Perhaps, in a few years, we will gain enough experience that our opinions have
merit on their own. Until that time, we either take chances or buy only from people we trust. Right now there are a dozen or so people that I would trust to supply me with coins sight unseen and every one of that number has in common that they have handled ten times the coins I have. Even then I occasionally pass up a coin that I can not accept even though it has passed the muster of one of my trusted folks. That is where I stand with regard to Joe's suggestion "don't buy".
I do, however, believe it is
fine to post coins to a
discussion board as
part of that learning process since we can gain experience seeing coins that are bad. There is no such thing as a coin that can be stated as certainly
good based on photos alone. Photos lie. Photographers lie. I appreciate those on the
Forvm who look at photos and match them up with known bad coins and those post might just save you from a mistake. The big mistake is to take a lack of condemnation as a sign that you are safe. To be safe, educate yourself; to be safer compare your opinion to that of people better at this than you; to be safest do both of these and buy only from people both knowledgeable and willing to back their opinions with a lifetime moneyback guarantee. Do I do this? No. I take some risks and make some mistakes. I would really like to know how many
fakes I have bought in the last 49 years of
collection but that number is not what makes the hobby enjoyable to me. The fun
part is the process of education. If what you want is a
collection of
good coins:
"Buy coins you know are
good AND buy from sellers you know are
good. If you don't know BOTH, don't buy."