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I Want to buy an Asaphus kowalewskii. What should I know?


FossilSloth

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There are a lot of Asaphus kowalewskiis on a particular auction site, that range in price from 100-300 dollars. Are these legitimate? They all come from Russia, Finland, Estonia, and that region. I know there's always some restoration to the shell, but are they ever faked outright? Example attached 

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Don't just take my word for it, but I would guess this one is safe. The eyestalks both have repaired cracks, (may be notable that sometimes eyestalks are composites) common on these (I've had to repair my own) as well as cracks along the trilobite. To me it looks like the tail has some restoration, and maybe some other spots. I've noticed that often the restoration doesn't totally match the trilobite, in the third picture it looks to me to be restoration. But I see no signs of an outright fake.

 

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  • 2 months later...

I would think that they are faked less common as the eye stalks would be quite the pain and more noticeably faked but there's a good chance someone out there put the time and energy to produce a fake so just look for the other signs of fake trilobites air bubbles, mismatched matrix etc. Good luck hope this was useful. 

rydysig.JPG

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If you are buying it in person, take a black light with you.  The repair/restoration glows.  You can get a cheap black light for under $10.  

If buying by mail, you can ask for the seller to take a picture under a black light.  I do it all the time.

Here is an example of what it will look like.

Joe

 

picture134.JPG

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On 7/18/2017 at 0:05 PM, crinus said:

If you are buying it in person, take a black light with you.  The repair/restoration glows.  You can get a cheap black light for under $10.  

If buying by mail, you can ask for the seller to take a picture under a black light.  I do it all the time.

Here is an example of what it will look like.

Joe

Nice, cool fact! I will try this next time.

Keep looking! They're everywhere!

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Crinus brings up an excellent point. I bring a blacklight with me when I examine any fossil I consider purchasing for my collection.

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