I was a little shocked to see the hammer price for this coin. https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=4115&lot=78 Sure, some copies like Becker or BM electrotypes are collector’s items but in this case the coin is just listed as a modern copy. I worry we had multiple bidders who either didn’t fully read the notes, or do not speak English well. Thoughts?
I am not surprised at all and I don't think someone mistook it for genuine. Prices are insane even for copies either BM or others. Even books and auction catalogs sell high.
I think it was misleading of the auction house to include it within a collection of genuine ancient Greek coins. Most auction houses would have listed it in a "Copies and Reproductions" section. I think someone got seriously burned. Either that, or someone even less scrupulous that the auction house is planning to pass it off as genuine. Aren't modern copies supposed to include some kind of mark unambiguously announcing that the coin is a copy?
To be fair, if you look at the auction site itself, the words 'modern copy' are at the start and the end of the description: https://www.artemideaste.com/auction/view/732/78 Perhaps they realised they weren't being clear enough after Numisbids took the description. But that doesn't mean the advice to read carefully doesn't hold true. There are so many auctions where they mix copies in with the genuine coins and few are as clear as Artemide to label it a 'modern copy'. You have to know the terminology to realise it's a copy. Like in the above example where they give the references of a genuine coin, but you have to know 'cf' is an abbreviation of 'conferre', the Latin for 'compare'. How obscure is that? I didn't know what an 'electrotype' was until I saw CNG (I think) had a separate section for them and I looked it up. And I often get confused when auctions keep switching between the phrases 'collectable sample' (i.e. a high-grade genuine coin) and 'collector's copy' (i.e. a fake). When you're looking at hundreds of coins you can miss it and make an irreversible bid.
I think what is disturbing about it is that somebody paid 455 euros plus fees for it. Why would anybody pay that kind of money for a modern forgery? Let's hope it's not some newbie thinking they got a genuine coin. Maybe somebody who's native language is not English. Think of all the forgers out there wetting themselves thinking they can charge 455 euros for openly advertised forgeries. It would be better to not create demand for forgeries by paying such a ridiculous price for one.
If you look at the Numisbid listing, the only mention that it is a copy is hidden--and I've chosen that word carefully--in the technical details at the end of the description: "Cf. SNG ANS 215-217. AR. g. 17.44 mm. 29.00 Modern copy. About EF."
I am sorry guys, I am not sure why you act like you fell from the sky?! I have been complaining several times about absurd prices in auctions but it seems there are many auctioneer apologists around. This looks like a nice fake. I am not shocked it sold for that price. I didn't see anybody getting shocked about the Festa fake which sold in CNG for even more https://cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=359374 I know at least 3 persons who post in CT and collect fakes and have the pockets to make them hammer extremely high.
The price of 455 Euros for this coin is steep considering the quality & its unknown origin. Of course there are many fakes worth investing in for their quality & historical importance. I bought the handsome fake Tetradrachm pictured below from a CNG auction about two years ago for $120.00, with an estimate of $100.00. Oriental Greek, Baktria. Heliokles Dikaios, circa 145-130 BC, AR Tetradrachm: 30 mm, 16.82 gm, 6 h. Dies by Carl Wilhelm Becker, 1772-1830. Ex Jonathan Kern Collection. For comparison the coin pictured below is a genuine period Tet of the same type.
This Becker fake tetradrachm of Sicily, from a CNG auction had an estimate of $200.00 and sold for $2,875.00 !!!
This auction came immediately to mind: https://www.romanumismatics.com/215...na-third-wife-of-nero-a21-of-thyatira-cilicia
I think a problem are the online auctions. You wait for a coin that interests you, the other lots that are passing through, and suddenly there is a rarity at a super low price. Only 5 seconds to decide if you want to bid. Not enough time to read everything thoroughly......
There is a difference between buying Becker and other well-known counterfeiters works. Those are a subgenre of themselves. An unknown forgery with no providence or background does not usually command the same prices as a Becker or other. This is not the first time I have recommended people not spend large sums on forgeries to avoid encouraging the forgers to create more. I've been consistently saying that since I joined coin talk.
