Laziest Forgers Ever

You'd think that if someone was going to fake a Constantine SPES PUBLIC, the forger could at least get the Chi-Rho on the reverse right. That's the whole point!

And why is Cyprus the home of so much forgery now? I'm looking at eBay less and less these days, but if it has a provenance of Cyprus, I keep scrolling.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/113117656710?ul_noapp=true

 

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that coin is a tooled Siscian campgate, that's why the chi-rho is wrong, he didn't try to change the star. You can also easily make out some of the rows of the campgate in the border of the standard and some in the snake. He started with something like the coin below--





the seller is also notorious fakeseller.

 

Wow. That is a lot of tooling. Maybe he’s not so lazy after all. But if you go to the trouble of tooling away an entire brick building, can’t you at least fake a better Chi-Rho? Still disappointed in our forger.

As I tell my students, if you’re going to plagiarize in my class, you had better bring your A game.

 

Sure he could have put more effort into it, but it will sell, probably for quite a bit of money. The fakeseller is not trying to fool knowledgeable people. The people that are going to shell out cash for this type of fake are not so discriminating to begin with and will not notice the problems with the coin and think that they got a bargain.

 

I understand that there is a sucker born every minute. The thing already has bids. But if one is interested in the coin, it’s probably because one understands that it holds potential significance for the history of Christianity. If one knows that much, one should know there should be a ch-rho on the reverse. But perhaps the desire for a bargain blinds people to careful thought.

 

greed and ignorance combined beat down careful thinking everytime

 

A sad state of affairs, all around.

 

I believe the new trend for whatever reason is to claim to be from Cyprus but actually reside in Bulgaria.

 

A real one:

 

that one is also fake

it was sold in 2015 on eBay by well-known fake seller victoriqn


here is the 2015 picture




a die match



another die match

 

o wow!

 

Oh no!!!



That was my coin of the year last year, Warren and others thought it was genuine. Well, back it goes, and the quest continues. <<sigh>>

 

Thanks so much for enlightening me, @Victor_Clark! Truth be told I did think the portrait and obverse lettering were a bit odd, but deferred to others more knowledgeable. I should have gone to the #1 Constantine expert.

Are those die match photos in a fake database somewhere that I missed?

 

Just to be educated further here, the problem is not that SA’s coin has a die match. Plenty of coins have die matches. The problem is that SA’s coin has a die match to a probable fake, raising the possibility, if not probability, that SA’s is also fake. Am I understanding the matter correctly?

 

The first problem with the coin is that it does not look right. It is not terribly bad, but if you are familiar with Constantine's portraits from Constantinople it is a bit off. For comparison, below is a genuine example that sold the same week that the fake example was initially offered on eBay.



You don't have to compare only SPES portraits to get an idea. The SPES coinage was struck at the same time as a whole series of new types for Constantine- GLORIA EXERCITVS, GLORIA ROMANORVM and LIBERTAS PVBLICA; which all have the same bust types and probably even share some obverse dies. These are all laureate, they also come in diademed flavors.







there are some issues with the fake like the Chi-Rho is attached to the standard. On every genuine example that I remember seeing, there is a small gap between the Chi-Rho and banner; though perhaps this is not always the case. The biggest giveaway in this circumstance, was that I remembered this coin being offered on eBay by a known fakeseller. The other examples turned up a little later, and rare coins do have die matches, but when so many turn up in a short time span, it is a huge red flag.

As far as a database, I have a topic on my LRBC forum from 2015 about this exact coin and FAC also has the original eBay picture of this coin and a later auction picture of it, attached below, which looks like your image.

 

Either they weren't up before or I was searching wrong... now I see them, clear as day. I've also registered at your LRBC forum, @Victor_Clark. Clearly I did not do my due diligence on this sucker!

I've emailed the seller requesting a refund, and stating that I'd prefer to destroy the coin or mark it as a copy rather than sending it back. I also need to request editing privileges on the old posts in which it appears, I'll add that it's a fake and link the relevant Forum page.

Everyone else: feel free to send me condolences PM's! Definitely feeling bummed about this, even more so that it was my own fault & I should have known better. Beware the power of wishful thinking!

 

Sorry SA. This was my thread and now I feel responsible. But maybe the upshot here is that you rid your collection of a forgery and hopefully get your money back, which you can put toward a genuine example. Maybe this post will also keep someone from buying what looks to be a reasonably convincing forgery.

 

Going back to the topic subject: Is the forger lazy? I wouldnt think so, but then I have no idea how long it takes to create such a forgery. Obviously it was tooled out of a genuine coin. How long does that take? I have no idea. Maybe 10 minutes, maybe 10 days. But a quick look shows that the minimum wage in Cyprus per day is about what this coin is now bid. Maybe the forger thought they could get 10 times the current bid (and maybe it will, it has days to go). There may be a payday for the seller, but there may not be. So, is he lazy? Only the hammer price will tell.

 

I'm grateful, Gavin! Part of the point of posting coins on CT is to have many eyes check them out. This coin passed a lot of eyes before Victor detected that it was a forgery, which just goes to show the value of our forum. I'm definitely thanking you!

And I'm certain I'll get my money back. I just regret that I passed on a second example that came my way, but is now long gone.