The closest I've seen to the rice paper E. scalare is a picture in one of
my books that shows an E. scalare with a couple of small chips broken off
that were supposedly tested because the shell was sold as a rice paper
shell.  The tests were negative, it is a normal, although now a bit
chipped wentletrap.  If I remember correctly the author concludes that
the rice paper story is probably false.  Now the kicker, I can't remember
which book had this little bit of history - sorry, must be that senior
thing!  If anyone is really interested, please let me know and I will dig
through my books and dig it up.
 
On fake shells, I have seen some great ones.  I had a really nice fake
Conus hirasei and a friend has a beautiful Chimaeria incomparabilis, a
Cypraea aurantium, and a Cypraea leucodon.  All of these are well done
and would be considered art if done here in the United States.  There are
also some interesting fakes of Pleurotamaria (slit) shells pictured on
Guido Poppe's web site.  This is really an interesting area and worthy of
a chapter in some future shell book.
 
Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA