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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 4593202, member: 110350&quot;]For anyone interested, in the second Goldsborough article that I found on the Wayback Machine -- the one on the fake Apollina Pontika Medusa/anchor drachms in the &quot;New York Hoard&quot;; see the link in my original post -- he gives the following suggestions for detecting such fakes, although it&#039;s clear that not one of them is foolproof:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Most of these pieces have fairly convincing flans. In fact, their overall eye appeal is generally better than authentic coins of this type, with a wilder looking Medusa and a more clearly defined crayfish. They exhibit a similar kind of flamboyance that the Bulgarian replica maker Slavey Petrov has made famous and that other Bulgarians have imitated. The authentic coins, on the other hand, frequently appear on misshapen flans, are poorly centered, and exhibit large edge splits.</p><p><br /></p><p>Though there aren&#039;t universal diagnostics for these fakes, there are indications, according to Robert Kokotailo, owner of Calgary Coin &amp; Antique and moderator of the Ancient Coin Forgery Discussion List, the observations of others, and my own observations:</p><p><br /></p><ul> <li>With the fakes, Medusa&#039;s forehead is small relative to the rest of the head, and the cheeks are puffed out. But this isn&#039;t foolproof because many genuine coins were struck with this style as well, the varieties I&#039;m calling Type One and Type Two, illustrated on the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20141114235344/http:/medusacoins.reidgold.com/apollonia.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://web.archive.org/web/20141114235344/http:/medusacoins.reidgold.com/apollonia.html" rel="nofollow">previous page</a> of this site.</li> <li>On some of the fakes, Medusa&#039;s hair consists of two rows of beads instead of one, while I have yet to come across one genuine Type One or Type Two coin documented in the literature with two rows of beads, though authentic-looking two-row specimens ocassionally appear on the market.</li> <li>Medusa has a wide-eyed demonic expression on many of the fakes, while on many of the authentic coins the expression is almost comical, though on some of the fakes the expression is comical and on some of the authentic coins it&#039;s demonic.</li> <li>Medusa&#039;s eyes have a slanted &quot;Oriental&quot; or Asian appearance on many of the fakes, though some authentic specimens also appear this way.</li> <li>Medusa&#039;s eyes have a clouded, cataract look on many of the fakes, though some authentic specimens also appear this way.</li> <li>On many, not all, of the fakes, the crayfish has more than six legs, which are very finely rendered.</li> <li>The center groove of the anchor on many, though not all, of the fakes is very pronounced, while this groove may not be present at all on authentic coins.</li> <li>Some of the fakes are well-struck and well-centered on well-rounded flans, while many of the authentic coins are struck off-center on odd-shaped, ragged flans. This also isn&#039;t foolproof because some of the genuine coins are well-centered, some of the fakes are off-center, and so on, as the examples below show.</li> <li>With most of the fakes, the high point of the concave reverse -- Medusa&#039;s nose -- is above the plane of the coin&#039;s rim, while on most of the authentic coins, the nose is below this plane. You can make this determination by placing the coin on a table reverse-side down to see if it rocks back and forth on Medusa&#039;s nose.</li> <li>Many of the fakes have unnatural-looking golden-brown or gray-brown toning, but this toning comes off with cleaning, so this also isn&#039;t definitive.</li> </ul><p>All of this reinforces the notion that counterfeit detection isn&#039;t an exact science and that collecting ancient coins isn&#039;t risk free.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Perhaps more helpful are the photos of 48 different &quot;New York Hoard&quot; fakes that Goldsborough provides in the article.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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