Pertinax Sestertius

It's probably no consolation, but it's a very convincing fake. I wouldn't offer to keep the fake for more than a few bucks. Consumer law in my country (probably most countries) would compel the seller to provide a full refund or a replace it with a genuine item.

 

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My seller and his experts (no comment) still declare my coin genuine, but I sent it back today and he agreed to show it to further experts in France and Germany and respond within two weeks. I wonder who that might be and if I´ll get my money back.

I also asked the seller of the third example for evaluation and will let you know what they and CNG come up with.

 

The seller has to give you your money back because the coin is clearly a fake.
Obviously if it's left to him and his "experts", his "finding" will be in his favour.

 

Thanks for the good advice, Eduard . But once you have the forgery "in hand", it tends to be "too late", I fear.
I promised myself to take more time looking through ACSearch and CoinArchives before I make the next bigger purchase. But in the next weeks I will spend most of my hobby time reevaluating all the stuff I bought last year. I not so sure anymore that everything is as good as it looks :-(

I offered him to have it evaluated by David Sear or other known experts in the field but he did´t respond to that, ha ha.

 

We'll keep our finger crossed that the seller guy does the right thing.

I would not put a lot of faith behind the sellers 'own experts', as Greg points out.
It needs to be somebody who is recognized in this area.

This story reminds of something that happened to me at the last Numismata in November 2015. By coincidence it was also with a sestertius of Pertinax.
I was offered the coin by one of the dealers at the show, and I said OK, but asked (distrustful as I am), what kind of guarantee do you offer the coin is real?
After all, he wanted all of 900 euros for it. He then said, no problem, and pulled out a 'certificate of Authenticity', which had been produced and signed by him.....!
yeah, sure!
I said, good to know, let me think about it. A while later I came back with somebody I know whom I can fairly say is an expert in the field of imperial bronzes.
A 3-minute inspection sufficed for him to pronounce the coin as being at least grossly manipulated, and very likely of doubtful authenticity.
So much for 'self-made' guarantees!

 

A Certificate of Authenticity is just a signed opinion that a coin is authentic, and has no legal standing. It's only as good as the respectability of the person signing it, and the biggest frauds on eBay offer CoAs.

 

I wonder who (if anyone) I'll send my suspect coins to, once David Sear makes it to coin-heaven?

... man, that dude is a fricken Coin-Rock-Star!!

 

I don't know if I missed a similar comment earlier in the thread but, if its not to late, I would immediately start an action through paypal or your credit card company.

 

Well, there's certainly a few well known experts who can succeed him. We know who is respectable and who isn't (Mr High-rating-low-price comes to mind!)

There is no scientific test (yet!) to ascertain 100% that a coin is authentic, so all we have is opinions - and these will never be 100% foolproof.

I'd like to see a "coin jury" to which we can submit suspicious coins for trial. CT has a very robust jury IMO, and the OP coin has been found "guilty"!

 

looks to me cast buble, what i had by my balbinus

 

yah, no => Sear is Golden ... the rest of the dude's on this site, or that occasionally chime-in with their biggity-up-ness just don't seem to cut it!! (I'm not paying for their NGC two cents ... is that what it's called? ... NGC?)

Either way => yah, I think if and when Sear passes-away, I might pull the plug on collecting? ... I'll have no safety-net!!

 

I don't know if CNG already offer authentication services, but it might be something they may consider. Conflict of interest my be an issue, though. Just an idea.

Any other recognized experts in the Americas who can view the coin in-hand?

This is an issue in all of the ancient forums that I frequent - Germany, Spain, France.

 

Hi friends, I can finally share the news with you that I DID get my money back after a lengthy telephone discussion with the sellers expert (an nice man, nevertheless an expert in modern gold coins only). Thank you so very much for your help everybody!

The seller, who was a friendly guy after all, did sent the following comment:
"If this coin appears to be a cast, 95% of all roman coins can be the same, and people can stop collecting."
Sadly, part of that is true. Who would have been able to identify my Pertinax (and the other two lookalikes) as a fake if it were not for the blessings of the Internet?

On a lighter note, I re-invested the money right away and got something nice for it which I will share with you here later :-D

 

The signs of a fake that are most helpful are not the same for modern gold and ancient bronzes. The fact that a person is 'expert' in one means nothing in the other. In this case the big problem is that were were shown multiple coins with identical centering, flaws and dies. Modern coins produced from mechanically reduced dies and struck perfectly most of the time require more reliance on other characteristics which can be masked by the cleaning that all ancients are expected to have. I'm no expert here but the point is when I want to avoid a health problem, I don't go to a urologist for a toothache. I am glad that the seller and his expert were good people but the fact remains that you should limit buying a Pertinax sestertius to sellers who have seen them before. The troubling matter here, to me anyway, is that we have not heard from the ancient specialist dealers who handled the other coins involved in this match. Was this an error or is there more to this story?

 

Gee, I'll have to keep this in mind.

 

CNG just let me know that they are inclined to believe that the coin they sold was a cast and that mine was at least more LIKELY to be genuine than theirs.

On the other hand, CNG would not be interested in auctioning my coin as they are currently only accepting consignments with a total value of ~$2000.

Künker (sellers of the third specimen) had already explained to me that at least two of the three coins, if not all, must be fakes in their view.

Trust me, I am still happy that I got my money back considering there are at least three other clones around. Would you want to take the risk of having paid big money for a cast???

 

Unfortunately, modern casting techniques make it very easy to produce very deceptive imitations of ancient coins. The raw cast (or strike, for that matter) can additionally be distressed or enhanced in any number of ways. More wear, false patina, scratches and dents; all of these can result in a very imposing forgery.


The easiest way to begin protecting yourself is probably by using this very forum. Post photos along with weight, size, provenance, location of seller, etc., and let other collectors and dealers offer their insights. The Pertinax sestertius is a good example of this productive interaction. Very shortly THREE examples turned up! I've attached a photo of some fakes from my black box. I hope none of them are dead ringers of a coin in your collection.