Certified Authenticity \ Certificates Included
THE FOSSIL STORE™ IS A 3rd generation family business from 1969, and re-established in '92 to now guarantee a lifetime authenticity guarantee on all our FOSSIL, MINERAL ARTEFACT, and METEORITE products, securing lifetimes.
All THE FOSSIL STORE™ products are accompanied with a printed certificate of authenticity document. THE FOSSIL STORE™ COA [certificate of authenticity] guarantees authenticity attributions on your product/s, including;
Origin
Age
Genus or type
An assurance that THE FOSSIL STORE™ has provided an item with a true content that has been illustrated and described. Guaranteeing your product/s is/are genuine and THE FOSSIL STORE™ has provided an authentic item as described.
Certificates \ COA
The COA (Certificate of authenticity) acts as a bond between THE FOSSIL STORE™ (the seller) and you (the client). THE FOSSIL STORE™ guarantees accurate and authentic information, and signed by a representative of THE FOSSIL STORE™.
Restoration and Conservation
Conservation, restoration and repairs. The reality of unearthing a natural specimen is that the vast majority of specimens quite often come out of the ground in multiple sections and require further conservation. THE FOSSIL STORE™ acceptance is 95+ percent, with the majority of our items at 100%.
The ‘general rule’ is an acceptance of a 25% bar on restoration, if approximately or more than 75% of the element is complete, this is then considered an acceptably fair specimen with conservation.
For a correlation of this rule and when considering Museum collections, particularly vertebrate and dinosaurian specimens, the level of acceptance is much higher if only 25% of the fossil is original and 75% is not or has been cast from other known specimens, this is considered acceptable. However when considering minerals an 80% -100% unrestored state would be more in line with what is considered a good or fair condition in most collections.
Fossil repairs are almost always necessary, as a matter of course, particularly with vertebrate specimens, bone, claws and teeth type fossil material.
These normally need to be stabilised and repairs affected to any breaks or fractures caused historically in the fossil layers or during the extraction process from the ground. This is undertaken with sympathy to the originality, by a good fossil preparation laboratory, often associated with a recognised company or museum service. Under the right circumstances, we acquire projects which are prepared and restored in-house. This will be in our descriptions or requested condition reports. Some exceptional specimens require no work or stand alone without further conservation, this will be noted in our descriptions.
Legal Notice
THE FOSSIL STORE™ solely trades with fossils and associated materials that are legally attainable. THE FOSSIL STORE™ does not work with businesses operating outside legal guidelines. THE FOSSIL STORE™ operates with legally acquired material, unless such material was acquired prior new laws, rules, regulations and legislations or has been acquired from historic collections where such items a legally attainable with our jurisdiction.
