Saw a Roman coin at a garage sale for $2 and had a total skeptic-to-believer moment

I thought it was a tourist replica until the guy running the sale showed me his grandfather's old collection books from the 1930s with matching photos. Now I'm wondering how many real artifacts end up just sitting in junk piles - has anyone else stumbled across something legit that way?

3 comments

3 Comments

zaranelson14d ago

I used to be one of those people who'd walk right past garage sale junk without a second thought, honestly. But finding that coin completely flipped my perspective. It's crazy how we assume anything old looking must be a fake or worthless, but that's just not true. The bayonet story really got me too, it's wild to think people had a civil war artifact sitting in a kitchen drawer for all that time. Now I'm totally rethinking every dusty box and old drawer I come across. How do you even start figuring out if something like that is real without taking it to an expert?

rowanr889d ago

Ha good point about that bayonet being a letter opener @miaprice, but I think that story was actually about a sword cane, not a bayonet. The real trick for spotting fakes without an expert is to look for obvious machine marks or uniform patina, old stuff usually has uneven wear and weird imperfections.

miaprice14d ago

The really wild part is that most people don't even think to check what they're selling. I helped a friend clean out her grandma's attic last summer and found a civil war era bayonet just sitting in a box of old kitchen knives. The family had been using it as a letter opener for decades. Makes you wonder how much history gets thrown away or donated without anyone taking a second look. Your $2 coin could be the start of a whole new hobby if you decide to research it.