Since 2015 Ebay sellers cami-toys and guidoapothecary from Buenos Aires in Argentina have been selling these fake enamelled (porcelain) plates. Every 2 to 3 weeks one of these plates would appear with the 2 sellers taking it in turns to advertise. It is believed both sellers are the same person or people. The sellers do not say if they are used or not and do not say if they are genuine or not. They still have some left unsold and it is likely there are more than just these ones that they have made.
There is a very good website in Spanish about early Argentinian plates (http://www.patentesantiguas.com.ar/galeria/inicio.php) that shows what some of the genuine plates look like and these fakes are the wrong design, wrong colours and wrong scripts (letters and numerals).
As explained by an Argentinian collector who knows more than anyone about such plates:
1) the letters and names have strange shapes and characters on these fake porcelains. It seems that they did not try to «copy» the originals, even though they did keep the same colors (that do not match exactly), at least on the three pairs of «original vs fake» I have.
2) the plates are all too neat, most are very shiny, no extra holes, no cut corners, no bent corners, not too corroded corners…
3) no chips on date, name or number! hey… I’d like to find such nice porcelains myself! Tell me the «recipe» how to find 30+ immaculate plates one after another with no chips on names and numbers! This guy is a magician!
4) too many porcelains offered in a short period of time. Porcelains have become very scarce lately here in RA. If I find a porcelain every 2 to 3 months I touch the sky with my hands!
5) prices too cheap and free shipping. Neat porcelains offered and sold for $123 + free shipping ($16 – $18) is very suspicious. Deduct shipping, Ebay and PayPal commission from $123 and the seller gets nothing!
6) back of the plate is the main clue. No mess on the back! Original porcelains usually have some remainder of the front colors on the back, even signs of other colors and colors of previously made plates. The fake plates are too neat on the back.
7) the plates are all the same size. Genuine ones come in 5 or 6 different sizes.
How they produce them:
After they fire the plates, they chip them on purpose only on corners or sides, then put the plates in salt, so the metal gets corroded in a short period of time. They even scratch some a little bit with metal wool to make them look used.
The guys that started this «industry» also copy old porcelain signs. They are recently made fakes also not genuine old signs.
Remember, if a deal is too good to be true, there is almost certainly something wrong with it.
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