After returning to Rochester in 1975 I couldn't wait to see my first coin show at the Rochester Museum & Science Center, sponsored by the RNA. I wanted to add a Byzantine coin to my collection , & after browsing for about an hour I spotted a gold histamenon nomisma from the reign of Romanus III, Argyrus, AD 1028-1034. The coin was priced at $100.00, a lot of money back then, but I had to have it. The composition of the enthroned Christ on the obverse & the Virgin Mary crowning the emperor on the reverse intrigued me; see the photos below. When I got home I weighed the coin on my triple beam scale & it was 3.90 gm, when it should have weighed about 4.40 gm . My heart sank. Could it have been clipped that much? After showing the coin to 8 collectors, 4 thought it was good but clipped, 2 wouldn't venture an opinion, & the other 2 thought it was a fake. I didn't get a receipt for the coin & was too embarrassed to return it anyway. Two years later I showed it to a knowledgeable dealer at a coin show in Syracuse, NY & he felt confident it was a die struck fake from the "Beirut School" in the Mideast. Lesson learned . Below the photos of my fake are photos of a genuine gold coin of that type, courtesy of CNG, 1-13-2016, 24 mm, 4.33 gm.
It it at least made out of gold? if so you may actually be able to sell it today for a tiny profit...or at least get those $100 back.
Its a bit hard to tell, but I think it is from the same dies as Illustrated in Sear's Byzantine Coins & Their Values, #F84-6. As it is gold, I am sure you could get some of your cost back, likely a small profit as well.
With ancients, and their handcrafted dies, knowledge and knowing your dealer means a lot. Hard lesson to learn, though most of us have learned it. It turns a ton of people off from the hobby. Glad you stayed around. The best defense to such things is honestly the most pleasurable part, knowledge. Simply read a ton about ancient coins, look at tens of thousands of pictures of them. You will not immunize yourself but it helps. I noticed a few odds things in your pic, but wasn't sure until I saw a comparison.
Ken Dorney & Sallent, the coin did check 23K gold, so yes the coin is worth about $140.00 as bullion, but the lesson is more valuable than that...
I'm sorry to hear of your painful and frustrating roller coaster ride of authentification. It sounds to me however that it could still be real. Have you considered sending it to NGC or another grading service just for one final opinion on whether or not it is authentic? Even though the last vote was for fake most of the other votes were for authentic.
In case you want to sell it, I would like to buy it for more than the $140 if interested. I already have a Histamenon of Romanus III, but I would be glad to have a fake histamenon, partly to my own education and partly to show it to the others and tell them about counterfeiting. I always keep the receipts, and even scrutinize the whole forgerynetwork.com AND FORVM's fake report system.
Lol, don't all of us feel the same way. I am only 50 but already know how big of an idiot I am in many, many areas. I really think that is the key to wisdom, realizing how little any one person can really know.
A word of advise...these are the types of conversations best done via PMs, and not publicly on the threads. Moderators frown heavily on active selling in the forums (except for the sales section), so I do most of my deals via private messages.
Deacon Ray, I got over the pain & frustration a long time ago & have since shared it with many fellow collectors. Maybe posting the coin on CoinTalk will give it more mileage. The last dealer I showed the coin to had an encyclopedic knowledge of Byzantine material (I couldn't remember his name if you put a gun to my head) & I accepted his verdict. As far as sending it to a 3rd party grader, why throw more money at it?
This is good sign of properly functioning mental facilities. Many of us spend way to much time and money trying to convince ourselves that the time and money we wasted previously was justifiable. I wonder how many coins are sent to the TPG services every day just in the hope that the obviously bad was just a little bit good.
