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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2320831, member: 19463&quot;]I keep telling myself that I would try better to document this Black Sea fake but this thread seems like the place to put it and I&#039;m lacking time to give it another go tonight.&nbsp; This is where I stood at last attempt.&nbsp; There is a lot of dust and tray lint on this.&nbsp;&nbsp; Note, instead, the slopes of the top of the M with lines that differ from the polish marks in the field.&nbsp; I don&#039;t know if this is in any way related to the question or not.&nbsp; Maybe someday I&#039;ll get the photo I want.&nbsp; Big &#039;maybe&#039;!</p><p>[ATTACH=full]469031[/ATTACH] </p><p>The first tip we were given 20 years ago was that the cutter of the BS Hoard dies did not understand that he was showing a helmet with no head inside so his nose guards looked a bit too much like noses and the eyes had too much personality for simple holes in metal.&nbsp; There were &#039;complete&#039; sets of die ID&#039;s circulated showing the suspect dies but I do not have this and more were probably added later.&nbsp; Then I read that someone suggested that the dies showed signs of having been cut with rotary tools (probably dental tools) and there were suspicious raised scratches that looked rotary rather than hand engraved.&nbsp; I claim no expertise in this department but my image of the reverse does show raised lines which might just be polishing marks, flow marks or might (possibly?) be these rotary marks.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]469030[/ATTACH] </p><p>The obverse photo shows what seems like crystallization at the left but the pattern is just not quite right in my opinion. How these were added I do not know.&nbsp; Finally I was told that someone had bought some of these for about $5 in a museum gift shop and in no time we all were able to buy these in that price range.&nbsp; I did not pay the 1989 going rate of $265 for this one but wanted it at $5 as a memento of the numismatic crisis of the decade.&nbsp; There was a fake of Apollonia at that same time but I never was able to buy a cheap fake for my set.&nbsp; Shortly after that several other Black Sea coins were found to be of modern manufacture.&nbsp; That is about the time I started leaving coins of this region to other collectors.&nbsp; Certainly experts can try to keep up and protect all of us from whatever these guys are up to next.&nbsp; I don&#039;t try to keep up.&nbsp; </p><p><img src="http://www.pbase.com/dougsmit/image/100182173/medium.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p>There are plenty of non poisonous snakes to fill my desires to play with reptiles.&nbsp; Still, you can get bit every so often but no one dies.&nbsp;&nbsp; The same goes for coins. If you must have one of these, buy it from someone who knows more than I do.&nbsp; I have two coins of this type that I believe are genuine but I would not sell them to a beginner since I am only 90% sure of them.&nbsp; If I sold them to someone who knows the whole story, fine, but I can not guarantee them like I might with most of my coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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