Fausta and Helena Antioch/Nicomedia forgeries

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by romeman, Jun 13, 2018.

  1. romeman

    romeman Member

    Dear fellow coin collectors,

    We need to do more to stop the avalanche of forgeries. Not only do they constitute a fraud, but they threaten our hobby (and they mess up my research as well). One thing we can do is to publish known forgeries, for the benefit of all.

    We must also ask the dealers to spend a greater effort in researching the coins they sell.

    I will here give a disturbing example of a large number of forgeries. They were published already in 1989 and 1990 in the Bulletin of Counterfeits (BOC). Unfortunately, the Bulletin is a collector’s item rather than a widely used reference (a complete run of the bulletin was sold in 2015 for over $2,000).

    You who read this may well be the unlucky owner of one of the forgeries shown below. They have all been sold to someone. The sellers include a dozen of the major auction houses as well as respected dealers. They have sold the coins as genuine, unaware that they are forgeries. Sadly, had they checked the BOC they would have recognized that their coins were not genuine. But they didn’t.

    These forgeries are so deceiving that it is almost impossible to identify them individually. I have bought two of these to study, and they are near perfect, but not entirely. I will not reveal what details in the coins themselves that show them to be forgeries because that information would then become available to the next generation of criminals. However, by die matching (see below) I can show that they are forgeries.

    If you own further examples of these forgeries, or know of any, please let me know.

    Lars Ramskold
     

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  3. TIF

    TIF Always learning.

    Welcome to the CoinTalk ancients forum, Lars (or welcome again) :)

    Thank you for your numismatic work.
     
    Orfew, Roman Collector and Deacon Ray like this.
  4. Deacon Ray

    Deacon Ray Artist & Historian Supporter

    We need more forgery detectives like you, @romeman !
     
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  5. maridvnvm

    maridvnvm Well-Known Member

    Hi,
    I had permission from IAPN some time back to add the fakes from the BoC to the Forvm Fake reports. I added almost all of the BoC fakes (over 1,100 fake reports) to the database back in 2009. Your images are much better at showing the state of the fakes as they enter the market.
    Regards,
    Martin
     
  6. Aidan_()

    Aidan_() Numismatic Contributor

    We did have a forgery detective member here on cointalk but left due to threatening emails he received from some auction houses I think.
     
    Curtisimo and Deacon Ray like this.
  7. Deacon Ray

    Deacon Ray Artist & Historian Supporter

    Great to see you posting again, @Aidan_() ! How's your collection going!
     
  8. Aidan_()

    Aidan_() Numismatic Contributor

    It's not like I died! Just a little busy! :D Newps are slow, but FUN is coming!
     
    Deacon Ray likes this.
  9. Deacon Ray

    Deacon Ray Artist & Historian Supporter

    Still kicking—great! That's right—your big coin show is coming up. One of the days is Bastille Day—July 14—A great day to purchase an ancient coin...or two....or three....
     
    Aidan_() likes this.
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