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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;SeptimusT, post: 3771756, member: 91240&quot;]We all know about modern cast fakes, and hopefully have some idea of how to recognize the signs of them. But what about <i>ancient</i> cast fakes? When it comes to ancient counterfeits, we usually think of fourees (deceptive ‘silver’ coins with a base metal core and a thin layer of silver on top) or imitative (not necessarily deceptive, usually of a base metal or occasionally of silver, but not issued by a proper authority). Some even collect them. But there were also cast counterfeits in the ancient world. We have perhaps seen ancient coin moulds imitating tetrarchic folles, but did you know that even in the first and second century denarii were also being cast?</p><p><br /></p><p>We were talking about these in the class I am taking on ancient coinage, and how it would be nearly impossible to tell these apart from modern fakes unless they were recovered in a proper excavation. The exception that came to mind was XRF (rather than silver, these ancient cast fakes contained a high degree of tin, which imitates the appearance of silver), but that isn’t readily available for most. I was unable to find much information on whether the ancient casting method might leave traces which were noticeably different from the modern ones, and I don’t know whether any of us have had the opportunity to examine such pieces in hand. In general, it looks like they tended to use moulds made after authentic coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>A search of the Portable Antiquities Scheme database shows that these types of cast fakes are actually relatively common, especially from the late 2nd Century, and I am posting some examples below. The article “Cast Forgeries of Roman Denarii and Antoniniani, Silver-tin-copper and Copper-tin Alloys,” by Raub and Zwicker in Vol. 172 of the Numismatic Chronicle also discusses the alloys used in these counterfeits. Something to keep in mind next time you’re looking at a cast denarii (or any coin, really).</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/492569" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/492569" rel="nofollow">Cast copy of Julia Aquilia Severa</a>: </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1008760[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/913774" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/913774" rel="nofollow">Cast copy of Septimius Severus</a>:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1008762[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/394307" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/394307" rel="nofollow">Cast copy of Caracalla</a>: </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1008763[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/662608" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/662608" rel="nofollow">Cast copy of Julia Maesa</a>: </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1008761[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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