New cast fakes arriving on ebay

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by maridvnvm, May 9, 2021.

  1. maridvnvm

    maridvnvm Well-Known Member

    As many of you know we all need to be aware if dabbling on ebay. There are now a host of new cast fakes being dribbled out onto ebay. These range from 1st and 2nd century limes, through bronze ants and on into LRB.

    I am collating quite a few images and will be uploading them to the Forum Fake reports. I thought it worth while sharing a few here as a quick illustration.

    These are all quite low quality casts but will expect to see these dribble out through uncleaned lots etc as time goes by.

    I have almost 100 different coins identified so far.

    CTG VICT LAETAE with decorated shield

    CTG Horse 1.jpg CTG Horse 2.jpg

    Constantine II - Plan of camp site

    CII Camp 1.jpg CII Camp 2.jpg
    Carinus Quinarius

    Carinus Quin.jpg Carinus Quin 2.jpg
    Probus - Sol from Siscia

    Probus Sol.jpg
    Probus Siscia Sol 2.jpg
     
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  3. Gavin Richardson

    Gavin Richardson Well-Known Member

    I’ve looked at a lot of LRBs and I can’t say that some of these would not have fooled me.
     
  4. Spaniard

    Spaniard Well-Known Member

    Thanks Martin.....Good to know.t
     
    galba68 likes this.
  5. Antonius Britannia

    Antonius Britannia Well-Known Member

    I could see how these would fool many a collector. Thanks for the heads up.
     
  6. Mammothtooth

    Mammothtooth Stand up Philosopher, Vodka Taster

    May I ask are there noticeable visual points that tell you they are fake?
     
  7. Antonius Britannia

    Antonius Britannia Well-Known Member

    The surfaces on most have a pocked cast look, which is distinguishable from corrosion from being buried. The lettering on legends is soft, whereas a stuck coin will generally be sharp. Casting in general does a bad job mimicking fine details.
     
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  8. Mammothtooth

    Mammothtooth Stand up Philosopher, Vodka Taster

    Thank you
     
    Antonius Britannia likes this.
  9. Ignoramus Maximus

    Ignoramus Maximus Nomen non est omen.

    Thanks for posting.

    Looks like a serious outbreak of 'bronze disease' on eBay...
     
    Antonius Britannia and DonnaML like this.
  10. SeptimusT

    SeptimusT Well-Known Member

    I'd like to see the edges on these. Some of them are fairly obvious, but others are less so. I'd hope that it would be more noticeable in hand...
     
  11. hotwheelsearl

    hotwheelsearl Well-Known Member

    The artificial wear looks excellent. Would definitely have fooled me, since I’m used to LRB being in poor states of preservation
     
  12. xCoin-Hoarder'92x

    xCoin-Hoarder'92x Storm Tracker

    Definitely authentic Chinese pieces! :jimlad::cigar:
     
    Nann likes this.
  13. romismatist

    romismatist Well-Known Member

    Wow, thanks for the heads up, Martin. I guess the forgers are keeping busy during the pandemic as well. At first glance, and without their "twins" (which look exact right down to the flan shape in most cases), these coins could fool some people. Still, you're right about the details not being sharp, which is definitely a red flag.
     
  14. Marsyas Mike

    Marsyas Mike Well-Known Member

    Scary. They are getting much better at preparing those "ancient" surfaces. And faking LRB's that I wouldn't've thought worth the effort.
     
  15. hotwheelsearl

    hotwheelsearl Well-Known Member

    Honestly. It can't be economically feasible to make coins that trade at >$10 prices.
     
    Marsyas Mike likes this.
  16. MasterVampire

    MasterVampire Active Member

    Cant we report them to ebay?
     
  17. maridvnvm

    maridvnvm Well-Known Member

    We can report to ebay and I have. This has very little impact on them. These tend to be false accounts purporting to be in the United Kingdom / France but are in fact based in the Balkans from where everything is shipped. Identifying themselves as being in Bulgaria is too much of a red flag. The are closed down and pop up with a new account within minutes.

    Despite the statement above about these being Chinese I believe them to be of Bulgarian origin, which would follow previous experiences.

    Previously I tracked sets of "silver" denarii from Bulgaria. Now they have gone for bronze (Limes / LRB) where some of the manufacturing sins are almost the norm.

    Limes denarii are typically soft looking and are cast anyway so as a single item it is harder to spot a fake Limes when taken out of the context of the other fakes. They have created Limes of Matidia, Nero, Vespasian, Titus, Trajan, Septimius Severus, Julia Domna, Geta, Severus Alexander etc.

    The coins seem to spread across the entire range of the Imperial spectrum Tacitus, Probus, Votives, FTR, IOVI...., GENIO... on to Arcadius.

    If people are interested then I will add some of the images here as I process them.

    I will be adding them to the Forvm Fake reports for the long term too.
     
  18. catadc

    catadc Well-Known Member

    Interested at least for the FTR series. Thank you.
     
  19. Factor

    Factor Well-Known Member

    That would be great!
     
  20. romismatist

    romismatist Well-Known Member

    yes, definitely interested in seeing more of these fakes for my own education - always interested in learning...
     
  21. maridvnvm

    maridvnvm Well-Known Member

    OK. I should be able to process another few today. I will pick out a range of what I have noted so far. I try to stick to ones I have absolute evidence of (duplicates) but will also show you several that I am awaiting twins for.

    The same sellers are touting Celtic, Greek, Anglo-Saxon but I have not gathered those yet. I will hopefully get to them in slower time.
     
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