I wrote a long response and deleted it. What I will say is that know your dealer also applies to dealers in eastern Europe. There are more US sellers on the NFSL, yet we don't condemn all US sellers. We do condemn all eastern Europeans, though. That says a lot about us, I think, way more about us than about them (and I know you are Canadian, so I am all that more surprised being that is such an American exceptionalism attitude). My two known fakes came from a seller in Afghanistan and a seller in the US. Not from eastern Europe.
Virgil
Virgil - American exceptionalism?? Hardly. I buy all over the world, and travel to actual locations to buy many times. I'm not American and married a Ukrainian woman who immigrated to
Canada as an adult. I would nevertheless not buy a coin mailed from Ukraine, and my wife is the first person to advise me not to!
I play the odds, and in person, at dealers around the world, and in online marketplaces like
eBay, I know what parts of the world I have encountered a lot of
fakes in.
Your mileage may vary and I respect everyone else's choices in where to source coins. By the way, a majority of my coins were not sourced in the USA, for what it's worth. A great many have come from
Canada, UK,
Germany,
France,
Italy, Belgium.
Greece, the Czech Republic and
Portugal.
For eastern Europe - personally - I would recommend to buy in person if so inclined, which is only my opinion based on my own coin
buying experiences. I get that there is contrary sentiment here, and I respect that too.
Ps: many parts of eastern Europe are beautiful and a coin
buying trip there would be a great experience mixed with lots of local cultural opportunities. Inspect the coins carefully, as always.