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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Marsyas Mike, post: 3220838, member: 85693&quot;]There was a thread last month that I put in my 2 denarii worth last month.&nbsp; At the risk of repetitiveness, below is my contribution. </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/cast-coinage.324097/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/cast-coinage.324097/">https://www.cointalk.com/threads/cast-coinage.324097/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, fakes abound. Most of them, after a little experience, are easily detected. Some are trickier (such as the OP, and some others in this thread). A few rules I observe:</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Avoid the high-end stuff. I do this for budgetary reasons, but also because the fakes are abundant in this material. For instance, I rarely even glance at Tiberius &quot;tribute pennies&quot; - they have been faked so many times (sometimes skillfully) that I&#039;d want an expert opinion before I&#039;d bid on one. </p><p><br /></p><p>2. Avoid high-grade stuff. I like ancient coins because they are ancient, so my coins tend to have problems - wear, bad patina, off-center, etc. These kind of coins tend not to be faked (there are exceptions - the RR denarius with the coining tools has a very common low-grade fake - off-center, banker&#039;s mark, etc. It has been posted many times). The OP examples are an interesting case - these are fairly high end coins where some care has been taken to age them. They would&#039;ve fooled me, but they were probably out of my price range anyway. </p><p><br /></p><p>3. Everybody says &quot;it it&#039;s too good to be true, it isn&#039;t true.&quot; I agree with this <i>most</i> of the time, but one of the reasons I hang around eBay so much is because of the exceptions. A Calabria, Tarentum nomos came my way in a $30 &quot;buy it now&quot; auction from a world coin dealer who doesn&#039;t deal many ancients: </p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/tarentum-mar-30-2017-4-jpg.828552/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>This sort of deal can be found if you can wade through gazillions of over-priced, if genuine auctions and lots of (mostly obvious) fakes. Personally, I like the hunt and I don&#039;t take the fakes personally - if I get mad, then I am not having fun, and I am here for the enjoyment. </p><p><br /></p><p>So I stick to lower-end, more common material. But this being said, there are lower-end fakes on eBay, and I have been fooled. Below are three from recent years. Here is how they got me:</p><p><br /></p><p>Gordian III Sestertius - I found this in the jewelry section; the seller made no claims for the condition, and I thought it looked nice, despite being in a bezel. I had handled very few 3rd century AEs at this point, and I bid. As soon as I took it out of the bezel, I could see the very wrong edge - filed-down seam, I think - this and the fact it weighed 10.5 grams led me to conclude it is fake - a rather nice cast, but fake.</p><p><br /></p><p>Maximinus Follis - This was a $1.99 &quot;buy it now&quot; with a blurry photo. I was quite inexperienced with late Roman bronzes, but I liked the looks of this one (great portrait). The fact it is corroded led me to believe that it was ancient. Nope. I believe this is a museum replica of some sort - it has that antique pewter thing going on. The corrosion might be where it was glued to a card? Even the corrosion was fake!</p><p><br /></p><p>Hadrian Sestertius: This one really fooled me - who would fake such a worn specimen? Well, somebody did. This one has an obvious casting seam (see close up photo) and weighs 14.4 grams. The seller is a reliable world coin guy who said in the auction he wasn&#039;t sure of authenticity - the other two coins in the lot were genuine LRB of Valens in pretty nice shape, so for what I paid it was still an okay deal. </p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/fakes-3-roman-ae-2017-2018-0-jpg.828563/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/fakes-3-roman-ae-2017-2018-6-jpg.828564/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/fakes-3-roman-ae-2017-2018-7-jpg.828565/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>All three of these coins were for me very <i>educational</i> - and not very expensive. Some find the idea of any fake to be so off-putting that they avoid eBay altogether. I respect that. But I like the hunt (and the bargains) found there.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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