"Jimminy Cricket", as people used to say. So many of the
members of this board give information in
good faith to obviously bad faith postings, it really boggles the mind.
Although I continuously beat the drum on this, let me make a suggestion:
BEFORE you respond to an authentication post, click on the name and see how many of the prior posts are for "ID
Help" or "Authentic or Not" and then look at how many
fake coins the person posted.
There are bad faith people testing their
fakes on this board. Sorry to say it, but it is true.
Seriously -- what is the reason you feel compelled to offer opinions on authenticity to people who sign up only to ask about authenticity? If a contributor has a track record, even if the person is asking "newbie" questions, and then asks bona fide authenticity questions, that's one thing. But it is the year 2022 and everyone reading this board has internet access. And this board has many very well-crafted threads about how to approach coin collecting.
Really, why should you tell someone who has never posted a real coin or a real question whether a coin is fake "by eye"?
If the person already bought the coin -- which is a requirement of the board posting rules that is often ignored by posters and responders, and easily faked anyway -- and they bought a fake coin from a "really reliable coin dealer that my grandfather likes in SouthEastNoNameVille" -- then frankly, if they are telling the truth, then they are "F'ed" anyway: a
crook is not going to return the
money and everyone knows that;
ebay does not enforce any rules against fly-by-night clowns. The
NFSL would not exist if
ebay did.
I respectfully suggest that the same amount of research and analytic skepticism that goes into your personal research should be
applied to the
question as much as the response. Perhaps these internet fakers would at least have less "constructive criticism" on which to base their campaigns.