Have a Laugh

Yesterday I stumbled on one of my early mistakes, and a very embarrassing one I might add ! At the age of 17 (54 years ago), I just returned home from a coin show in Syracuse, NY. While browsing through one dealers stock I found a Nero Tetradrachm from Antioch, Syria, pictured below. The coin had a price of $15.00 written on the holder and I promptly put the coin aside with a smirk on my face . The coin had been placed in an undersized Whitman cardboard holder, like the picture below the coin, so you couldn't see the edge of the coin . When I got home I quickly removed the coin from the holder and looked at the edge of the coin . Instantly I realized I got duped . The stupidity of youth struck again . Syracuse is a long drive from where I lived in Rochester at the time, and besides I was too embarrassed to drive back to that show. This is the kind of coin a tourist vacationing in Italy might buy .

 

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Just to rub some salt in the wound....according to usinflationcalculator.com, your $15.00 in 1965 would be the equivalent of $122.27 today. Hope you learned your lesson

 

Good job they hadn't taken the time to file off the seam, you'd of never known..

 

Well, at least you know it is at least 54 years old. In a world of cheap knock-off fake coins, that is a real antiquity!

 

I was 14 years old when I bought my first "ancient coin". It caught my eye because if was a large brass coin with the Colosseum on one side. The obverse was a portrait of Vespasian. I had no idea at the time that such a coin never actually existed and this was a fantasy cast for tourist of the 19th century.
None the less, I was still hooked and continued collecting and learning a little at a time for the next 53 years. As the saying goes "It's an ill wind that blows no good".

 

octavius, I like that pearl of wisdom "It's an ill wind that blows no good". It looks like both of us rode the same current to a positive end . Getting up after falling down & continuing the path with determination to succeed is the only way to go. Anyone who has been collecting ancient coins over a long period of time & claims to never been duped isn't fooling me, they're fooling themselves .

 

Thanks for sharing the story. I suspect most ancient coin collectors have been deceived at least once .

 

I feel you! At least you were just 17. My fakes (3, including a recent identified fake of pompey) were sold to me at an fair when i was 30+... Should have been wiser? I guess yes.

 

Don’t beat yourself up, @Al Kowsky It’s a great reference piece that you can use to teach new collectors what to avoid

 

Deacon Ray, I can look back at this experience today with a chuckle, however, as a teenager with an inflated ego it was quite painful . I've learned from all my mistakes & haven't repeated the worst ones .

 

Hey, I have one of those, and I can't blame the ignorance of youth since I purchased it only a few years back

 

It happens. I havent had a fake in a very long time, until I bought the one below this year. It came from a source I would never think a fake would pass them by either. At first I thought it was just corroded and maybe crystallized. But the person I sold it to showed it around and it was condemned (and I agree with them). I dont think I will return it. I should have known better...

 

Don't forget the old coin saying:

There are 3 types of collectors

Those who bought fake coins, those that will buy fake coins, and those that don't know it yet.

 

Oldhoopster, Love it ! I'm going to remember that one .

 

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This post drove me to get out my similar coin purchased over 30 years ago and examine the edges. This is what I saw. Remember that coin flans were cast and sometimes retain signs of that casting unless they were filed or worn smooth in circulation. I wish every cast fake had as obvious an edge 'situation' as the one shown by Al. This image is a seven image stack to allow focus to follow the curve a bit better. The harder we look at coins, the more likely we are to talk ourselves in or out of a decision. I own four classes of coins:
1. Coins I am certain are fake
2. Coins I am unsure whether they are fake (90-10, 50-50, 10-90 etc.)
3. Coins I am nearly certain are genuine
4. Coins I used to be 100% certain were genuine but am getting less and less certain about anything the older I get
There was a time that many of my class four coins were thought to be genuine without question because I bought them from honest and knowledgeable persons but, again as I age, I increasingly realize that we all slip up now and again so I no longer have any 'bet your life on' status coins. What do you see here?
Click to enlarge.

 

Doug, Just viewing the edge of your coin & clicking the image to enlarge would it triggers obvious suspicion ! Can you supply front & back photos of the coin along with specs ?

 

Looks OK from just a side image. I like the red speck, hard crust like that is very hard to fake (unless its a spot of paint).

 

I did not post the front and back images on purpose because they might cause folks to color their thoughts about the edge. I will post them after a few more comments are added.

Not paint IMO. I saw it, too.

 

@dougsmit I can honestly say that unless you had said something I would have never even bothered to have a close look . I can guess at what might be wrong but not really sure.

 

"XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" scratched in the edge?