Authenticaion required Balbinus gold aureus

Hi all,

Just require some knowledge that i am lacking myself about a recent purchase.

This is for a Balbinus gold aureus as pictured in the attachments and the ebay listing where i purchased it from.

Just wondering if this coin is authentic or is it one to send back to the seller?

listing is correct that the weight is 5.81g, i have found online that during this period 55-60 were struck to the pound so this lies roughly at the midpoint so weight seems correct.

There is no signs of casting so it is definitely a struck coin, have read through "Calgary coins" list of things to check for cast coins and none of these are shown here.

If any more pictures are needed or more information let me know and i will oblige


thank you all for your help yet again


listing

 

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Tough love time: If you do not know enough about Balbinus aurei to know this answer yourself and if you do not know the seller well enough to trust the coin without asking a bunch of people most of whom will never touch a Balbinus denarius (let alone aureus), you are begging to be cheated. If genuine, the coin shown is a 5 digit $$$$$ specimen. Did you pay that much without prior research or advice from a professional? Is this your first ancient coin? We would love to see the rest.

 

Hi there, thank you for your reply.
Just to double check that you are saying that this is a fake?

i have a few other ancients but they are mostly lower value silver gordian III and trajan decius era.

My speciality is early milled onward, have always been apprehensive buying ancients due to the prolific forging that seems to go on.

I have a link at the bottom of the thread with a link to the listing on ebay, i purchased for £1360, if it is a fake i am covered under their returns policy.

thanks again for your help

 

I am not good at spotting fakes, however, there is something about this that bothers me.

There is only one aurius on Wildwinds and the spacing on the legend reverse is different. Not that Wildwinds has an example of every coin.

The spacing on the reverse is similar to many coins on forgerynetwork.com for silver denari.

 

If you had 1300 pounds to spend on a coin, a renowned ancients auction house or a well known and trusted dealer with a lifetime authenticity guarantee would have been my choice....not Ebay

 

Too me it looks like someone beat up a Lipanoff: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/displayimage.php?pid=5666&fullsize=1

The picture is from Forvm's fake coin database

 

If you had 1300 pounds to spend on a coin, a renowned ancients auction house or a well known and trusted dealer with a lifetime authenticity guarantee would have been my choice....not Ebay


Absolutely!!!

If that is genuine, it appears you scored a super terrific bargain and that alone makes me highly suspicious. Obviously, you need to send it to Sears and have it professionally authenticated.

This is a genuine example for comparison ....NOT MINE that sold for $70,000

 

I concur with @Sallent, I wouldn't buy a high end coin from ebay unless I knew the seller.

The reverse is too close to this example of a silver denarius with is a modern forgery on forgerynetwork.

http://forgerynetwork.com/showimage...hGI9BgvKiXSgDqDeexQQz0HkWt/ScPS/vrNO8VOdtKw==

 

The super low price and rough surfaces plus ebay suggest (scream) fake.

 

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/displayimage.php?pos=-17636
It seems the finder found it at Saxby's. The above looks like the same coin.
Lipanoff forgeries are struck from modern dies so your diagnosis of it not being a cast was correct.

 

I think Whiz has it spot on.

Get your money back.

 

thanks for the help guys i will be sending this one back to get a refund.
there are too many things that don't add up for this coin as well as the seller, I was always going to ask you guys for help after purchasing this ,thanks again for all your help I owe you all a pint

would it be beneficial for me to add any more pictures for them to be added to a forgery database somewhere?

just let me know what you need and i will oblige anything to help add more information about this die and coin for future

 

Yes, don't buy anything on ebay anymore unless it is from a seller this community trusts. Several lists have been posted.

Try vcoins, large auction houses, etc.

Don't think ebay sellers are permanent. They disappear and pop up under another name all the time. I hope you do get a refund, not sure what happens if the ebay seller bolts?

 

The one great thing about ebay: you will get your money back.

 

thanks again for your help guys as mentioned earlier i am new to ancients is it acceptable for me to regularly post acquisitions and ask for their authenticity to check i am on the right page or is there a better way of doing this?

this year i have gained the ancient bug but don't want the fakes to ruin my interest.

 

You might want to post a picture (not a link) of a coin you are thinking of buying. Better to stay away from ebay though.

 

Ask the experts here first, then buy!!

 

We really enjoy helping new collectors.

Post one thread per coin. Try to keep it to one per day or so.

Ancients are awesome and we want to see people enjoy them and not get ripped off.

There are many ancients for very reasonable prices that are very nice.

There is a whole series of these threads recently that are very educational to look through. Search "what your budget buys".

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/what-your-budget-buys-30-edition.302412/

John

 

There are only three genuine Aurei known for Balbinus (plus one of Pupienus, one of Gordian I and none of Gordian II).
As your coin would be one of the finest, if genuine it would be worth around § 200.000 today. No chance to find that on eBay.

 

Hi Richard,
Welcome to the forum, as a British collector of milled and hammered coins I caught the Ancients bug myself as there is so much more history attached to these coins than milled and the scope for collecting is only limited by your imagination. My first foray ended up with a few fakes but the knowledgeable and helpful people here put me right. There are some good vendors on Ebay who are established dealers with a reputation also but a lot of con artists. I had a fantastic experience last week which made me feel good but generally if it appears too good to be true, it isn't!
As Theodosius said there are lists of fake sellers so check them out. If the seller is from Bulgaria, don't even open the page and if the feedback is private then what are they hiding?