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Hi all: I have done much more purchasing on E-bay than I really should have over the past year. And there has usually been some concern for counterfeits (we are talking 'recent' -- not 'contemporary') -- where a 'contemporary' counterfeit would be one that was minted in the same approximate era as the original -- 'recent' meaning that is was very recently manufactured and the coin itself might be from any era (or in some cases, non-existent). Now because I'm still 'novice' -- I can't say that viewing an image on E-bay will be definitive -- meaning, I doubt that I can recognize a counterfeit from an genuine coin based on an electronic image. Summary: I'm somewhat disinclined to purchase on E-bay. And this has been a topic forming in my mind for quite some time -- but, the issue became much more focused to me today. I was 'cruising' as usual, and happened across a number of dealers that were selling coins that are very popular (Victorian crowns, english 8-reales, US Morgans, Indonesian pesata, .. and others). In their defense, they did not advertise them as 'genuine' -- in the description it says 'reproduction' and it references Chinese Miao silver (which is an alloy that contains about 2% silver, and more of copper and nickel). So ... I impart two things: Unless most of you have a better sense from 'visuals' than I get, it's really difficult to tell from an image whether or not the coin is genuine. I commend these dealers for being forthright in their presentation (you would be challenged to even find these entries searching by usual criteria) -- but at the same time, it does open my eyes to the possibility that certain less than reputable folks might purchase these coins (knowing that they are fake) and then resell them on E-bay. By the way, I did purchase several of these items -- simply because I wanted some 'genuine fakes' with which to compare my other stuff. Some of them are really good -- some of them are almost humorous (like when the obverse is for an entirely different coin than the reverse is). But, I am less inclined to purchase from E-bay as a result. Again, I appreciate the honesty of the seller -- because they really don't present any real intention of fraud -- but, the coins are essentially 'counterfeit' in the respect that they do not indicate on the coin itself that it's a fake. ./dz