Big batch of AUREII withdrawn from CNG

This problem is really scary. With some of these coins I noted that not only has the hole been plugged expertely, also some flat surfaces had been reworked in a very convincing way, at least judging by the pictures. So the manipulation doesn't seem to be limited to plugging holes, but also involves reworking the surfaces of coins, which may be even less detetable than a plugged hole.

What is perhaps interesting to note, is that people in Ukraine appear to have a somewhat different attitude towards such repairs. The Ukrainian website also offeres restored fibulae, belt buckles and other ancient objects (they have a category for that). These repairs are typically noted, but what I'm getting at is that nobody in the west think of taking a 1700 year old fibula and replace the spring and weld on a new catch plate to restore it to working order. So the people doing these coin repairs may not even think that it is a no go.

 

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I’m on vacation this week and can’t keep up with all the discussions. I see my comments on Facebook have made it here, so I don’t need to repeat them. I was actually going to create a thread on Cointalk this week about these coins.

just a quick note before I head out today.

These coins, while deceptive, aren’t perfect. The ones we graded at NGC we gave a 2 surface grade to because they had been heavily brushed. We missed the fact that the brushing was hiding a plug, but at least we didn’t say they were nice coins. Heritage is in the process of retrieving those coins and the consignor has not been paid.

The CNG coins were also originally consigned to Heritage and submitted to NGC in June. That group was returned to heritage as repaired or Authenticity unverifiable due to the amount of work done on the coins. Heritage returned them to the consignor who then consigned them to CNG, obviously without our tickets.

Now that I am aware of the work being done, I think I have a pretty good idea as to how to detect the repairs. I suspect there are some other coins out there that we have done in the past few months that may have unnoticed repairs. I will be looking for those.

Repairing coins is not new, not limited to Ukrainian metal smiths and not limited to gold. I see repaired coins daily, many of which have come from major auctions. It takes a good eye and a lot of experience to notice the repairs, and a lot of time and die study to be able to prove the repair work.

thanks to everyone here who originally alerted me to this Ukrainian site and bringing these repairs to my attention.

Barry Murphy

 

Good point. To illustrate it, please compare the two pictures below. The big scratch has mysteriously vanished !



Also many auction houses have seen "problems" with the coins. For example, the Victorinus was described as" Minor repair on portrait, some recutting in hair, brushed."

By the way, pictures of the coins have completely disappeared from the
CNG pages, but you can still see them on CoinArchives...

 

One thing I'm curious about is - where is the consignor based? Clearly the work was done in Ukraine, where it seems to be legal. The consignor then attempted to sell them for significant profit on Heritage, who then sent them back after NGC flagged them.

Technically, the consignor could say he wasn't aware of the work, but after they were returned by Heritage he definitely knew. He then attempted to sell them just as fraudulently at CNG.

I do hope if this person is a US citizen, that fraud charges are raised. I also hope if he's a European citizen that his country does the same. I also hope that CNG turns the coins over to the respective government to aid in the charges.

There is absolutely no excuse for this deceit, and I'd really love for this person to be made an example.

 

Wow. That’s pretty good repair work. The scary thing to me is how the goldsmith reproduced the obliterated lettering. It’s pretty much undetectable to the naked eye.

 

Could you please let us know if this consignor is a dealer/auctioneer?

 

Not a dealer or auctioneer, as far as I know, at least not one of several hundred that I know.

Barry Murphy

 

I'm just hoping we're not dealing with someone related to the Ukrainien Odessa mafia. If so, all the posters in this thread may disappear within the next week... So if you don't heard from us in 7-10 days, please call the FBI !

 

And on Sixbid.

 

Ocat: If we don’t hear from you in 7-10 days, it’ll probably be
7-10 days too late to call the FBI!

 

The coins below were in two different major auction. Note how the restorer has replicated the missing letters. I notified the auction house and they told me that they 1) terminated cooperation with the consignor and 2) that the repairs were undetectable even under 20-times magnification. This suggests that there are undetectable repairs out there, which can only be demonstrated if someone located a picture of the coin in its original state.






The Gallienus was described as
"Rare and undoubtedly among the finest known examples. Sharply struck and fully lustrous, a wonderful piece with a splendid portrait. Very faint marks , otherwise, virtually as struck."

Note that the surfaces were found to be "fully lustrous" under 20 times magnification. So no brushing or anything that indicated repairs. This suggests that this coin was probably restored by a person who was even more skilled than the one who has done the CNG coins.

The coin sold for just over USD 20000. I have seen aurei that sold for GBP 70000+ by a major auction house, which were heavily restored (partially reconstructed).

 

In another Forum an experienced user explained that even slightly different gold compositions can be distinguished in black light (UV light). I never tried it but it might help.

The second chance is to look for die matches. Maybe the restoration genius was able to create perfect new letters, but there is at least the possibilty that they are different from the original letters.

 

I have never heard about this black light method. It may work, unless the restorer uses ancient gold as raw material.

As for the die match, I suppose the restorer may have modelled the letters after a die match or if the letters differ slightly we may conclude that it is from very similar but slightly different or slightly more worn dies. Even two coins from the same dies can look quite differently, if the dies have out in the minting process.

And in any case these methods of detection would only be employed if there is an initial doubt about the coin. If not it would most likely pass undetected.

 

I do have to say, at least in regards to repairing the hole, I do like the work. Yes, I would want it noted ALWAYS its a repaired coin, but in all honesty, I think the hole repair restores the coin to more collectible condition. I have no problem with it as long as its disclosed.

 

It's certainly impressive work, but I think it's a matter of personal preference whether it makes the coin more collectible or not (especially once you realize it was repaired in such a major way - it looks better, but is no longer fully authentic).

I actually quite like holed coins since it's part of their history that tells you something about them ... not just the individual history of that coin, but sometimes something more when you seen patterns in what types were holed.

Holed coins of course also have the major advantage of being a lot less expensive than they might otherwise be!

Here's one of mine that I'm rather fond of:



I do also have other not-holed (and more expensive) specimens of the type, but what I like about this one is that an atypically disproportionate number of this type are holed, which tells us something about how they were viewed back in the day.

 

I understand its personal choice. I normally view tooled coins as an anathema, but repairing a hole to me could be viewed as restoration or conservation. Just my view, even fully disclosing the conservation, I would much rather see the repaired coin in my box. I have holed coins, for certain issues one must to obtain an example, and find it very interesting the difference between western "holing" (one hole), versus eastern "holing" (two holes), but given a choice would prefer them without.

 

I asked CNG for details about one of the withdrawn coin and just received this answer : "Thank you for your email. This lot was withdrawn because of extensive repairs."
Extensive repairs is now a new expression in my limited English vocabulary !

 

If you absolutely want to fill the hole, you should do it with a different gold alloy, e.g. red gold or whitish gold. Then the repair would remain recognizable, also for future generations.

 

The problem with restoration of coins has an another side also. I have to purchase this perfect dinar of Shapur from a very famous dealer here in Ukraine in Kiev. I was happy but after several monthes I have a free time to search at archives for same dies coins and for full attribution.

And I have find my dinar at CNG 102 lot 716 from May of 2016. But it was in much worse condition.... :-(

So, it was tooled by ukrainian genius. It fully lustrous, the brown deposits are on the same places and at 20x magnification you can see..... nothing! the true surfaces and relief as for usual cases...

So, I have to decide not to return a coin. Because it very beautiful. But this is a great experience and I am not surprising that this aureii have to fullish CNG & NGC.

 

If you don't react you actually encourage them to continue tooling coins and fooling collectors.