Click on image for a better view:

This image was purchased at a well known civil war shop for $75.00 by a friend of mine. Notice the soiling that has been evenly applied to the front of the image. Notice the brown spot in the background (a common flaw in cdv's). The image paper stock is thin. This looks very much like a normal cdv that has been abused by time. The officer shown in the image is a field grade officer, which makes it more desireable than a private soldier to the collector. When you look at it in person everything about this image says its a real one at first glance.

Sadly this is what I call a "professional fake", not one of those that are so obvious that they are laughable. This was done by someone who is very knowledgeable about image collectors, and has a good eye for what a real cdv should look like. Therefore I am assuming that a fellow dealer produced this fake. The image business has been very depressed lately due to the proliferation of fake images, so whoever produced this has jumped over to the dark side. The profit margin is far better on fakes than it is on the real ones. I bet it didn't cost more than two or three dollars to produce this fake. It sold for $75.00. Do the math. Click on the images below for detailed information on why it's a fake and what to look for.