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I recently purchased this piece from a fossil dealer. It has a complete head shield of Americaspis americana and two partial head shields. Based on the information I could gather, my guess is that it was originally part of an old collection; however, since the piece had been with the dealer for a long time, they could not confirm how they acquired it. The information card I received with the fossil states that it is from the Wills Creek Formation in Perry County, Pennsylvania. I understand that to be the location of the now-closed site where you could find head shields of Americaspis americana. When I received the piece today, some suspicions arose, which may or may not be justified. I was hoping @fossilcrazy @traveltip1 or someone else with familiarity with Americaspis americana could help resolve some of my concerns. My concerns are two-fold: (1) The head shields have been painted with a brown paint. It is possible that the original owner did this to contrast the head shields with the surrounding matrix. The paint alone is thus not a reason to say that this is fake. What is weird though is that in areas where paint has been removed, there seems to be a strange bluish color beneath it. You can see that in some of the partial head shields. (2) On one of the ends of the piece there is an edge that appears to have been cut by a saw and a portion that was left natural. There is a contrast in color again between these two surfaces. What am I to make of this? I saw a piece on another auction site that looks very similar to my piece. Is it possible that someone faked a number of Americaspis pieces and they are now floating around? The Piece The Head Shields The Suspicious End