Don’t let the fear of buying a fake coin put you off a great hobby!  Like everything else in life, it’s best to use a little common sense. 

Seller
Before you look at the coin, have a look at the seller.  Do you know them, have you dealt with them before?  Do they have a shop?  What do they have to loose by selling you a fake?

Feedback
Do they have good feedback?  Low feedback is fine, but make sure the positive percentage is high.  Private feedback is usually a bad sign – what are they trying to hide or what are they worried about?  Do they have negative feedback and if so why?

What do they sell?
Have a look what else the seller is offering.  Are they all coins, or a mixture of things?  Do they specialise in selling Coins?

Terms
Do they offer any guarantees?  If so, for how long?  It might take you weeks to establish if a suspect coin is genuine.  Do they offer refunds or life time guarantees?

Listings
Look for good quality pictures of both sides of the coin.  Read the description carefully, and watch out for words like “reproduction” “repo” “copy” or “fantasy”.  Try to find similar coins and compare the pictures, descriptions and price.  Does it look right?

Patience
This is the hardest thing of all!  There are a lot of coins out there, and with the exception of a small number of vary rare and very expensive coins, if you are patient, the same coin will show up again.  Don’t panic buy.  Read lots of listings, look at lots of coins, read as many books as you can, take to people, ask sellers questions.  Only bid when you are happy and feeling confident.

Too good to be True
There are bargains out there, but there are also a lot of people trying to spot them.  If you think a coins is too good to be true, and no one else is bidding – beware.