New blog: numismaticfakes

thanks keep on going

 

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I'm just stunned that this coin is a forgery:



While I'm not an expert in either Greek coins or forgeries, is there anyone here who can claim they could detect this as a fake? How?

 

This is the problem I see with most fakes databases. Looking at this new blog, I see several really obvious fakes from style and a few that I can see having a bit of a suggestion of a cast. This Philip is shown fake because it appears on a page of fakes in another database where it is one of several matching in style but not striking details so we call it "struck from modern dies". Not being an expert in coins of the type, I could neither confirm nor deny that interpretation. It would help if such listings were accompanied with more detailed explanations of the evidence. For example, being a cast with sisters identical in every respect is all the evidence required. Being struck from dies completely unknown before last year with the sudden appearance of a dozen examples could use at least mention as could microscopic evidence of dies cut with power rotary tools. I am not questioning this coin being fake but simply stating that a resource would be more useful to my education with a bit more hand holding and walking through the process that led to the verdict beyond copying a listing in another database that offers no more detail.

The killer here is probably 'wrong style' which is very hard to put into words that will be clear to those of us on the outside. I see serious style problems with the Agrippa asses shown but am a bit more familiar with other coins of that type even though it is not a specialty of mine either. I many cases, illustrating a half dozen genuine dies would allow the bad one to stand out but the illustration of a half dozen die duplicates (not mold duplicates) shows little more than the fact they exist.

As a criticism of the blog, I would offer the opinion that it will decreasingly useful as time passes because it will require indexing if we are to find a specific coin of interest. Now it is an interesting read but when it is ten time or a hundred times the size we will need a way of finding something other than the order in which it was posted. This indexing can be the difference between a blog and a 'proper' web resource.

 

I agree with all of Doug's points.

A workaround for such sites lacking indexing or some type of "table of contents" is to use a browser site search add-on. I use Chrome and have installed the "Search the Current Site" extension. When faced an unindexed site, I use this tool for searching.

 

Related, on its home page acsearch.info now gives the ability to see the most recent comments. There is an option to "see all". Until this change, I only saw comments if I happened to look at a given coin which had comments.

It is interesting to see that a handful of collectors are making notes of fakes, often citing the webpage where the discussion took place or where supporting information can be found. I don't know if there has been an upswing in this activity with the new changes or whether I'm just now noticing because of the new format. Either way, I hope it continues and encourage @Odysseus to make similar comments on acsearch for each of the coins he lists on his blog.

 

Agree! There are two groups of us: (1) Those who benefit from the exposure of fakes and the spread of information about them and (2) those who don't. It is up to those in group 1 to help group 2 find another line of work.

 

That's awesome => thanks for the coin-info, Odyssues ... wow, your Dad did a whole lot of great work (if he's still around then please thank him ... but if he's not still around, then congrats to you for spreading his great work)

cheers

 

My "no buy" list is simply one company. ArtCoins Roma.

Even if they have a coin I'm certain is good and can't live without, I won't do business with them. The sooner they go out of business, the better.

 

This gave me another shock! In Odysseus' latest listing of fake Kentoripai bronzes, the third coin was in CNG 63. The last line of the description reads "Lot includes a David Sear Certificate of Authenticity."

 

Thanks all for your valuable thoughts. I will deal with the matter of indexing in the next days, creating a new category for each mint or ruler discussed in all articles (categories are in the column at the left of the page, with green text), this way one will recover any article discussing the mint or ruler simply clicking on the related category entry.
Best regards.
Odysseus

 

Awesome, thanks for taking the time to post some of 'dem fakes Odysseus!

 

How come "ArtCoins Roma"?

 

Very nice!

 

Thanks for this valuable effort!

Makes the world better for collectors, numismatists, and the good dealers who want to stay in business.

John

 

It has been withdrawn.

 

Me too!

 

I'm sticking with CNG mostly. Anybody have an autumn site that they feel particularly good about? I need more action!

 

Dear dougsmit, thank you so much for your criticism, it was a great input for me! I'm now working on the topic of indexing. I've just added two indexes (you can see at the left side of the main page), one by mints, and one by rulers. I plan to improve indexing much more in the next days, adding another one by types and secondary symbols, one by denominations, and maybe even one by sellers. This way I am sure the blog will not be decreasingly useful as time passes because it will have a system of indexing that will allow users to find any specific coin of interest, searching it by mint, ruler, type, symbol or denomination. I hope this will make my blog an useful web resource.
Thanks again for your valuable thoughts.
With kindest regards.
Odysseus

 

ArtCoins Roma have a disturbingly high percentage of high quality, and some not so high quality, fakes in their auctions. I only bought one coin from them, one of the earlier auctions, turned out to be a fake (about a $10,000 coin). In fact, it was pointed out to me by Richard Beale from Roma (who I have always found to be very reputable BTW).

I fought with them for months to get my money back and when I did, I lost nearly $1000 in FOREX. They insisted it came from an famous old collection, was genuine beyond doubt, and wouldn't accept my word that I had it reviewed at a coin show by Baldwins, Ed Waddell, CNG, Tom Cederlind Frank Kovacs and NAC all of whom damned it. I was forced to get David Sear to condemn it in writing before they would entertain a refund and then the fun began actually getting them to send the money.

And guess what. They never bothered to get the coin back. Old collection my ass.

 

Hi Carthago, can yoy share a picture of that coin please? I'd like to publish your story on my blog.