Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2105686, member: 19463&quot;]In ancients we have a situation that may seem a bit strange to &#039;modern&#039; collectors.&nbsp; We have some fakes that are valuable in their own right.&nbsp; We also have copies of copies where the original fake is collectible and the fake of the fake is not.&nbsp; The British Museum replicas are of interest simply because they exist and were made long ago for reasons that we can accept.&nbsp; Another category is represented by fakes made a couple hundred years ago for the purpose of fooling rich collectors by &#039;name&#039; artists like Becker.&nbsp; Originals produced by him have a collectible interest but casts of his fakes made later are considerably less in demand by those who collect &#039;history of numismatics&#039;.&nbsp;&nbsp; Really valuable are the replica and fantasy coins of the Renaissance by artists like Giovanni Cavino collectively known as the &#039;Paduans&#039;.&nbsp; They are available in original for big money, early casts for less and poor grade aftercasts for a lot less but probably still more than is reasonable.&nbsp; The originals of these were made to be collected as space fillers by those who could not find originals and some of them are fine art but not Roman art.&nbsp; Of course there are also fakes made in ancient times either to fool people or to provide circulating currency in places poorly served by the real things.&nbsp; Several of us will collect these but there are still collectors of ancients who will only have official mint product so fakes are appropriately cheaper than genuine.&nbsp; It is a matter of opinion.&nbsp; Does a worthless fake gain value when it is 100, 200, 1000 or 2000 years old?&nbsp; Some say no; some seek them out as interesting sidelights of our hobby.</p><p><br /></p><p>Persian Empire c.500BC silver over copper &#039;fourree&#039; copy made to deceive</p><p>[ATTACH=full]396914[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Indian replica of Tiberius denarius - solid silver made to provide circulating currency - One theory is these were made after Nero began debasing the denarii and the Indian merchants wanted good old days quality silver so they made it.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]396915[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Cast fake (19th century?) of a struck Paduan replica of a medallion of Septimius Severus - not worthless but not worth anything like the original Paduan would be or the item it copied</p><p>[ATTACH=full]396916[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>A group of late 20th century Bulgarian struck fakes really next to worthless compared to their originals but I paid $4 each for these knowing they were fakes.&nbsp; I see some of them selling regularly as ancients but they really have terrible style and should not fool people willing to pay $100 to $1000 for such coins.&nbsp; Most often seen is the Pescennius Niger (row 2, right) which is probably the least deceptive of the group if you have ever seen a real coin of his.&nbsp; Will &#039;Slaveis&#039; be worth something someday like Beckers are now?&nbsp; Not in my lifetime.</p><p><img src="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/wslgroup.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Let me add that there is a cottage industry dirtying these up so they don&#039;t look so new.&nbsp; Can I fool you by adding 4 cents worth of dirt to my $4 coin and sell it to you for $400?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in