Your help please

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Kentucky, Oct 13, 2021.

  1. Kentucky

    Kentucky Supporter! Supporter

    OK, I buy coins on e-bay and hope that they are authentic. This last one I bought, I will use the e-bay photos cause I am terrible at photography. This is supposed to be Geta, 18 mm, 2.62 g Anything glaringly wrong?
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  2. Avatar

    Guest User Guest



    to hide this ad.
  3. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

  4. Marsden

    Marsden Well-Known Member

    Wow looks great ::thumbsup::
     
    Kentucky likes this.
  5. hotwheelsearl

    hotwheelsearl Well-Known Member

    Surfaces are a little porous, but otherwise IDK why anybody would counterfeit a rather common Geta.

    Geta isn't super cheap, so I only have a Limes denarius.
    Geta BI Limes Denarius RIC 18b.JPG
     
  6. Can this be turned into a teachable moment, please?

    Being a newbie, I would suspect this coin is a cast fake based on the porous surface.

    How does one determine a cast coin from one with a porous surface like this one?
     
    Kentucky and Deacon Ray like this.
  7. Sulla80

    Sulla80 Well-Known Member

    While some fakes are easy to spot with bad style, incorrect weights, and other give-away clues, others will only be obvious after you've seen/held a lot of them. Two examples: upload_2021-10-14_6-23-50.png
    upload_2021-10-14_6-24-42.png


    here's the quiz:
    upload_2021-10-14_6-25-56.png
    FAKE
    upload_2021-10-14_6-27-16.png
     
  8. furryfrog02

    furryfrog02 Well-Known Member

    I saw that one and passed. The grainyness (for lack of a better word) on the obverse gave me pause. I am by no means an expert though.
     
    Kentucky, Ryro and Dearborn like this.
  9. Theodosius

    Theodosius Fine Style Seeker

    Soft looking edges of letters and devices often result from casting because the crisp details are lost. Wrong weight, little bubbles on the surface, seams around the edges where the two sides of the molds met are also signs of obvious casts. Flan shapes or distinctive damage that exactly match other specimens are a give away of a cast. Lack of or blurry, minute flow lines radiating out from the center of the coin can also be a giveaway.

    In some parts of the world if you can take 10 cents worth of scrap copper or bronze and turn it into a $5 fake ancient coin that is a very good profit. So don't think no one would ever fake a cheap coin because that is not true. There are plenty of fake $5 ancients out there as others have shown many examples here.

    John
     
  10. kevin McGonigal

    kevin McGonigal Well-Known Member

    I once purchased a Gordian III double denarius at a price I considered low but thought that was because it was so common. Turned out even THAT common coin had been faked.
     
    Kentucky and Theodosius like this.
  11. hotwheelsearl

    hotwheelsearl Well-Known Member

    Often times a porous surface can come from a chemical cleaning, usually with a strong acid or a strong base, such as the below:

    Gallienus AR Ant RIC Rome 174j.JPG
     
  12. Dynoking

    Dynoking Well-Known Member

    I say fake, the sharp design of the women's(?) portrait doesn't match the rest of the coin. Just a guess. I know nothing about ancients or ancient counterfeit detection.
     
  13. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    I still lean towards the coin in the OP being genuine: I suspect that the blurriness is more in the photo than in the coin itself.
     
  14. hotwheelsearl

    hotwheelsearl Well-Known Member

    Could be a weak strike, or uneven wear.
    The obverse of this Caracalla is much smoother than the sharp reverse, but I have no doubt to its authenticity.
    s-l1600.jpg
     
  15. Kentucky

    Kentucky Supporter! Supporter

    Great question, that's why I posted it... it is porous, but I don't see any casting bubbles (or pearls). The edge (which the seller didn't show) looks OK too...
    [​IMG]
     
    Roman Collector likes this.
  16. hotwheelsearl

    hotwheelsearl Well-Known Member

    I'm doubling down on my earlier statement of a chemical cleaning. Geta coins were not very pure silver, and the impurities are often removed with chemicals, leading to a porous surface.
     
    Theodosius, DonnaML and Kentucky like this.
  17. romismatist

    romismatist Well-Known Member

    I would agree with @hotwheelsearl and @DonnaML that the coin is genuine, but a bit overcleaned. I had a Caracalla antoninianus a long time ago which I cleaned in a similar manner (I have learned much since then). The softness in the designs are likely more a result of harsh cleaning than the coin being fake, in my opinion. The metal porosity also seems to indicate (to me, at least) that the coin is likely genuine.
     
    philologus_1, DonnaML and Kentucky like this.
  18. Ryro

    Ryro Trying to remove supporter status

    Kentucky likes this.
  19. Kentucky

    Kentucky Supporter! Supporter

    philologus_1, DonnaML and AdamL like this.
  20. Roman Collector

    Roman Collector Well-Known Member

    Probably genuine but it lost a lot of metal over time. Don't expect a Severan to look like a denarius of Claudius. This Geta denarius was 40-50% silver. When the base metal leeches out -- either from environmental conditions or harsh cleaning (acid or electrolysis) you'll see porous surfaces like this. I'm not surprised it weighs only 2.6 g.
     
    Kentucky likes this.
  21. Kentucky

    Kentucky Supporter! Supporter

    OK...mea culpa, mea culpa, if we don't admit our failures, how would anyone else profit from them. Noting the dark areas on the coin, I figured just touching them with a bit of eZest coin cleaner would help...BAD CHOICE...I think what happened was the silver was dissolved from a low-silver coin... :(:(:(:(:( don't think there is any way to reverse this short of doing a silver plating job!
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    Roman Collector and Sulla80 like this.
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page