Dropped $80 on a supposed 18th century map of Atlantis and got burned

I found this listing on a weird auction site last month for an old hand drawn map that was supposedly from the 1700s showing the whole island of Atlantis. The seller had this whole story about it being from a monastery library in Portugal. I was skeptical but the price was only $80 so I figured why not take a chance. When it showed up the paper felt way too new and the ink smelled like sharpie marker honestly. I took it to a guy at a university who looks at old documents and he laughed after 2 seconds saying it was printed last year. Total waste of money and now I'm just annoyed at myself for falling for it. How do you guys even tell the difference between a fake antique map and just something that looks old?

2 comments

2 Comments

daniel51126d ago

You can't even trust that edge trick all the time either. I bought what I thought was an old map of the city I grew up in a few years back, paid like sixty bucks for it. The paper looked right and the edges were rough but when I got it home and held it up to a strong light I could see this faint grid pattern that was obviously from a modern printer. Took it to a guy who knows his stuff and he said the paper was made to look old by soaking it in tea and baking it. I felt like such a sucker. The ink smelled like a marker too once you got close enough, exactly like your situation man. Makes you wonder how many of these floating around on eBay are actually legit, right?

felix_coleman8727d ago

...and that's exactly why I've stopped buying anything "old" unless I can put my hands on it first. You learn real quick to check the paper edges under a light - machine cut paper has straight sharp edges, hand made paper is uneven. Also the smell thing you mentioned, that's a dead giveaway. If they claim it's from the 1700s and the ink smells chemical, you know it's modern. For $80 I'd call it a cheap lesson, but I still feel your pain man.