MObushwhacker
Full Member
IS IT TIME TO QUIT COLLECTING
Borned on the outskirts of a small Missouri town 71 years ago I started at an early age of hunting and collecting Indian artifacts. Back then, the farmers plow their fields bringing the artifacts to the top. In addition, they did not care if you hunted their fields. All the kids collected arrowheads. I retired 10 years ago from the Government and moved back to Missouri with the intent to hunt artifacts during my retirement years, cant thinks of a better way to retire.
I advertise in the local papers that I buy Indian artifacts and other vintage item and have accumulated a fair collection over the years. Several months ago I decided that I was accumulated more artifacts ten I had room for and decided to sell some. Where is the best place to sell, Ebay right? I had a large number of bird point, so I pack up the little point in packs of twenty. They were all very nice points. For a pack of 20, the highest bid on all the packs were less the 17 dollars or about 85 cents apiece I also sold three nice grove axes they sold for 30 and 35 dollars apiece. Arrowheads from an inch to three inched long sold for less then two dollars apiece.
But the real shock came today I took some of the exceptionally beautiful points over to a boyhood friend of mine who travels the US buying and selling Indian artifacts at the shows they setup around the country
He stated the pieces that I had brought over to show him were reproductions. He did agree they were old maybe 40 or 50 years old. He did this with his necked eye and never stutters. I know this friend for years and he would not give any bad information.
I spoke with him for several hours, on how he could tell if they were originals or reproductions. What did he use to base his determination on? I never got an answer. He stated that he had sent some of his early artifacts that he personal found to an authenticator in Kentucky and they were returned as being reproductions, and he stated I personally found them I know they were real.
We when to his basement where he kept his collection and show me the most beautiful arrowhead collection including Mississippian pots, stone pipes, large axes, and other artifacts. He then said something I will never forget; I do not know that any of them are real. There is a click of five authenticator in the US that recognizes each other’s certificates they have made millions of dollars selling their reproduction artifacts as the real thing. They will only recognize each other certificate and disclaim all the other. There is no way a person can be sure that an artifact is real unless you personally fine it. It is impossible, you can only guess, and probably 95 % of the artifacts for sell are reproductions.
He show me a magazine cover of a beautiful four and a half inch point made of jasper that had sold at an auction for 70.000 dollars and stated ‘I know personally that the point is not real’ I believe at that time I lost all interest in my collections other then some of my persona finds. I never got the answer I wanted.
How can you tell if an artifact is real are not?
To make this story interesting I have included pictures of some of my collection that does include some pre-Colombia gold items from panama. I found most of the other stuff.
Borned on the outskirts of a small Missouri town 71 years ago I started at an early age of hunting and collecting Indian artifacts. Back then, the farmers plow their fields bringing the artifacts to the top. In addition, they did not care if you hunted their fields. All the kids collected arrowheads. I retired 10 years ago from the Government and moved back to Missouri with the intent to hunt artifacts during my retirement years, cant thinks of a better way to retire.
I advertise in the local papers that I buy Indian artifacts and other vintage item and have accumulated a fair collection over the years. Several months ago I decided that I was accumulated more artifacts ten I had room for and decided to sell some. Where is the best place to sell, Ebay right? I had a large number of bird point, so I pack up the little point in packs of twenty. They were all very nice points. For a pack of 20, the highest bid on all the packs were less the 17 dollars or about 85 cents apiece I also sold three nice grove axes they sold for 30 and 35 dollars apiece. Arrowheads from an inch to three inched long sold for less then two dollars apiece.
But the real shock came today I took some of the exceptionally beautiful points over to a boyhood friend of mine who travels the US buying and selling Indian artifacts at the shows they setup around the country
He stated the pieces that I had brought over to show him were reproductions. He did agree they were old maybe 40 or 50 years old. He did this with his necked eye and never stutters. I know this friend for years and he would not give any bad information.
I spoke with him for several hours, on how he could tell if they were originals or reproductions. What did he use to base his determination on? I never got an answer. He stated that he had sent some of his early artifacts that he personal found to an authenticator in Kentucky and they were returned as being reproductions, and he stated I personally found them I know they were real.
We when to his basement where he kept his collection and show me the most beautiful arrowhead collection including Mississippian pots, stone pipes, large axes, and other artifacts. He then said something I will never forget; I do not know that any of them are real. There is a click of five authenticator in the US that recognizes each other’s certificates they have made millions of dollars selling their reproduction artifacts as the real thing. They will only recognize each other certificate and disclaim all the other. There is no way a person can be sure that an artifact is real unless you personally fine it. It is impossible, you can only guess, and probably 95 % of the artifacts for sell are reproductions.
He show me a magazine cover of a beautiful four and a half inch point made of jasper that had sold at an auction for 70.000 dollars and stated ‘I know personally that the point is not real’ I believe at that time I lost all interest in my collections other then some of my persona finds. I never got the answer I wanted.
How can you tell if an artifact is real are not?
To make this story interesting I have included pictures of some of my collection that does include some pre-Colombia gold items from panama. I found most of the other stuff.
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?? Please...If anybody can tell a fake artifact then we can put the people who sell them out of business in a couple of months. We can also put the people who claim to be authenticators out of business. Digital microscope aren't expensive anymore I bought a good used one 10X to 200X for less then a 100.00 dollars ( HOW) That was the question I asked and never got a answer. What do they look for and how do they make that determination if a point is real or not
