[drcy]

For my book, I did a case study research on ancient American Indian artifacts. Many of the artifacts on the market have similarly been altered and for similarly various reasons-- from a century old farmer innocently cleaning up a chipped age of an arrowhead he found in his field to a modern dealer deceptively reshaping a broken artifacts into a whole or even better shape.

Luckily, in this area the authentic artifacts are centuries old with centuries old wear, patina and mineral deposits from the earth, so you can identify when and where an arrowhead or such has been altered in modern times. Unlike with baseball cards, a razor sharp edge or corner is not a desirable quality.