A method including accepting a registration of an item in a database, the registration including a registrant's ownership information and an identifier about the item known to the registrant; and verifying the item is the registered item to a buyer of the item in response to the buyer providing the identifier. A method of authenticating an item including registering an item with a database, the registration including a registrant's ownership information; providing a seal having a public identification tag on a first side and a private identification tag on a second side; storing data of the public identification tag and data of the private identification tag in the database; and affixing the seal on a container containing an item or a representation of the item, when the seal is not broken, the public identification tag is visible and the private identification tag is not visible.