Sorry- No Easy Way of Doing it!

"There is NO MAGIC PILL to take to get experience...LEARN BEFORE YOU SPEND!"

Many hours of my day are spent answering questions, mainly about how to detect fake images. After years of battling the evil ones and being exposed to hundreds of fake images, I have written a guide called "Fakes, Forgeries and Frauds" which is available for purchase (see link below) on this & other websites.
This guide will increase your awareness and provides examples of what kinds of fakes are out there in the Civil War & 19th Century image world.
Frankly, there is no easy way of detecting fake images unless you have the experience (even then it can be a tough call sometimes), and have seen a variety of both authentic period images and modern fakes to be able to tell the difference between the two.
I have been doing this a long time now, and I thought I would be able to save the "newbie's" some of the severe penalty that comes from being inexperienced in the image collecting field. Those of you who have been collecting a while will know what I mean.
I made so many EXPENSIVE mistakes when I first began that sometimes I wondered if it was even worth the effort it took to remain in image collecting (it has been).
What I am trying to say to all of you who want to collect images is that you will make mistakes, you may even buy a fake or two, & you will certainly overpay for an image. This is part of your learning process. It is worth the effort in the long run. I have spent thousands of hours looking at photography and trying to learn as much about it as I can. You will need to do the same. Educate yourself!

Before you jump in and throw your money away, buy a book on collecting photography and read it- Google "collecting 19th Century photography books" or some variant and see what you can learn. Visit museums or antique shops and look at as much material in the area you are interested in as you possibly can. LEARN BEFORE YOU SPEND! Review my fake pages and learn what fakes look like. Other dealers have now added examples of fake images to their websites.
I am trying to give you the benefit of my experience as well as fellow collector's who have made suggestions to me. There is NO MAGIC PILL to take to get experience. It takes time and effort. I put the fake section on this site to help, but it is up to you. Thanks for taking the time to look at my site. I hope your journey into the collecting world is a pleasurable one, without to many bumps in the road.

Your humble servant,
Perry M Frohne