Dear Conch-L members,


It is with attention I was reading the remarks on fakes. A good starter
collection of recent fakes can be seen at:

http://www.conchology.be/en/cyberConchology/fakeshells/fakeshells.php

In february or march we will update that with a couple of dozen new
jewels and it is in the planning to make a teaching site on quality and
quality-prices. This is a difficult matter as a poor quality shell can
be a conchological treasure in some species and a gem shell not worth
looking at in other species, with all intermediates in between. It
takes at least 10 years and a 100000 shells through the hands to get
basic experience ! We do not speak about expert experience.


Our family is a true collectors family: my wife collects everything non
shell but shell related - her stamp collection has to be checked on
fakes regularly. But also fake old postcards, fakes of everything that
gets more than a dollar in value.

As a collector of African knives I bought several fakes - especially on
Ebay. Nigerian dealers have workshops for fake knives. As a collector
of old books I'm very sure there are fake pages, replaced pages,
reworked bindings etc....

Fakes and frauds go hand in hand with collecting: in the natural
history world read Peter Dance's work on that: uppermost interesting.

According to Peter fakes appear when the market in naturaly history is
slow in offering novelties - so some  dealers invent them.  In shells,
we are exactly in such a period: after
the excitement of Taiwan, we got  West Africa then Somalia. In the same
two decades we got completely spoiled like children with all new
discoveries of the tangle nets from the fisherman and the non stop new
Zoilas in Australia. And New Caledonia brought us the blacks. But what
did we get in the last 5 years ?
Of course hundreds of Rissoids, Trochidae and Cyclostermatidae  shells
etc... but few of the truly big stuff that takes on our sleep.

It is naive to believe there are fields of collecting without fakes and
frauds - it is part of the game and the expert knowledge one gets - by
acquiring frauds -  is part of the pleasure of long-time collecting.
The money lost in it is best considered learning money.

Already Abbott advised to buy from long established dealers with a good
knowledge on the subject. Several dealers use  the net and auction
websites  to sell fakes or their third and second choice shells. A good
example is the fake left-handed pergrandis, but also the multitude of
albinos, painted etc... shells found there.  Recently I viewed a nice
darkini, completely painted. Apart from the price - 1500 $ - you will
pay double on the spot for a real one and triple on the international
market and one has to say thank you to the dealer because the thing is
so rare ! How could anybody believe that a real beautiful darkini will
be offered so cheap ?

Collectors should also be aware that shells without labels are
worthless - as well the ones acquired in this way via the net or the
ones bought in a tourist shop.  But I know it is hard to find a Lambis
truncata on a dealers list and even harder to pay postage, just for a
label.

About the filed lips in Conidae: this is truly a problem.  Apart from
the smaller specimen and the very expensive tangle net shells - there
are few Conus with intact lips. It starts in the diving bag: if you put
a Conus leopardus next to a Spondylus, be sure there will be chips.
Unless you take 5 Conus and spend your dive in packing them right 12 m
deep with tissue and plastic, I do not see how to get them out of the
water with an intact lip. But then I also want to see the collector
paying 75 $ for a perfect lip in leopardus - and that will just be the
cost price...

With cracked lips of course we get hundreds of Conidae - but is there a
market for that ? We sell them off to the commercial grade dealers or
distribute for free...

Look forward to your remarks,

Guido - diving and photographing the Visayas underwaterworld.

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