Long ago I collected ancient imitations and posted a web site on them with thumbnails (because pages with lots of pictures took long to load). At long last today I replaced the thumbnails for the first century page with larger images that they used to link to. http://esty.ancients.info/imit/imit1stC.html If you are at all curious about fourrees and other imitations, take a look at that site. Here is one of the best: 19 mm. 4:30. 3.56 grams. Augustus. A super fourrée of highest style. Only the breaks at 11:00 and 9:00 where the foil is clear makes it obvious this is a fourrée. It had fooled the dealer until I pointed it out. The style is very close to the aureus of this type, BMC plate 7.10. Obverse: no legend, laureate bust right /FORT RED/CAES AVG/SPQR inscribed on a square altar RIC 54a, "Spain", "R2" page 45. BMC 359a, page 64, plate 7.11 (3.62 grams). Sear M 1608var with bust right.
That is one scarily good fourree. Does that mean that there is a possibility some big time collectors have a coin they paid huge bucks for thinking it was the real deal, but deep inside the truth is that it is a fourree? I'd imagine that if it wasn't for the subtle little signs on this one, it would have fooled a lot of people. I bet it fooled hundreds of people in antiquity too.
That's about the best fourree I have ever seen!! The high styling makes it seem a 'official' fake rather than the more prosaic criminal forgeries we typically think of. I would not have guessed a fourree from the photo.... I believe I may have a slightly 'inferior one' of Octavian/Augustus:
Go to the main page http://esty.ancients.info/imit/ of the OP site to learn about imitations, including fourrees.
@New Windsor Bill you can learn a lot from reviewing Warren's web pages. And check out Doug Smiths web pages as well. You'll be an expert before you know it.
A fourree is not just an ancient imitation but one where the flan was made with a precious metal outer shell over a more base core. Most are silver over copper. I have a page showing quite a few: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/fourree.html Some of my better ones have come along since that old page was written and I am long overdue in updating. I really should quit writing here and polish up those old pages. Augustus Augustus with great seams on the obverse where the silver foil failed to join completely Tiberius I prefer fourrees with a reasonable amount of core exposure showing how the sandwich was made. Certainly there are fourrees showing no core that are fooling their owners. The Greek tetradrachm of Alexander the Great below has a twin from the same dies with much less core showing (only a tiny speck) but weighing less than my coin (copper is lighter than silver). I have written two sellers resulting in the coin being pulled from their sales but I suspect that the owner just consigned it again somewhere I did not see it and sold it as solid. This photo series of a fourree Athenian tetradrachm shows a lot about what is to be seen below. Very rarely gold fourrees were done over a silver core. These worn longer before disclosing their little secret. Gold sticks to silver very well.
Thank you Doug. I see a lot of silvered ancients and have a few. Are these legit? Silver over a bronze coin?
I have only a couple... Roman Imperial Emperor Whomever AR Denarius FOUREE This was a freebie for being a good customer (thank you) This is from the "Ladies Man" himself: @Mat Roman Imperial AR Plated Denarius Fouree Julia Domna 194-217 Isis Horus I think he gave her up due to the plague she has... did not want to give that plague to the other gals in his Empress Harem...
NWB, no those are not fourrees. A fourree makes a profit for the counterfeiter by imitating a good-silver coin using a base core instead of silver and covering it with silver foil (like aluminum foil) and striking the imitation, which makes it look like good silver but with much cheaper base metal inside (The interior is usually copper. Silver was, by weight, 100 times as expensive as copper). Only when the original was fairly good silver was this profitable. The Salonina and Constantine II coins you showed us are just corroded coins that never did have much silver. Fourrees are common under the Republic and early empire when denarii were good silver, and become less common under Gordian III and later as the silver content of the originals dropped dramatically.
Thank you so much for that. The last 2 pictures I posted are of Constantine II, I kept looking at the lettering and could not figure that out. Much appreciated Bill
