Paid $50 for a supposed Roman coin at a flea market in Tucson. Lab tested it as a 1970s souvenir from Italy.

I thought I found an actual ancient coin but the patina felt wrong to me. A buddy at the university ran it through their spectrometer and it came back as modern brass. The guy who sold it to me vanished before I could even try to get my money back. Anyone else get burned by fake artifacts at swap meets?

2 comments

2 Comments

ward.fiona9d ago

Did you ever get that weird feeling where you just know something is off but you buy it anyway? Honestly, I did the same thing with a "vintage" Navajo bracelet at a Phoenix swap meet. It had this fake silver tarnish that rubbed off on my hand, and the stamp on the inside was way too crisp. Took it to a jeweler and he laughed, said it was made in a factory in India last year. Ngl, I was so embarrassed I didn't even try to track down the seller. I think these flea markets just know people want a good story more than a real deal, you know?

rowan5939d ago

Sure, but walk into any high-end antique shop and you'll see the same kind of stuff marked up ten times with a fancier story. A fifty dollar loss is just the tuition for learning to spot the real thing, and at least you got a lab test out of it. These markets are full of honest sellers too, so calling the whole place a scam just because one guy got you feels like a stretch.