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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;nerosmyfavorite68, post: 24881289, member: 134416&quot;]Given the increasing quality of ancient fakes, I&#039;d say yes.</p><p><br /></p><p>While it wouldn&#039;t be practical for circulation coins, could commemorative coins be made with the same artistic quality as ancient/early modern coins?&nbsp; I&#039;ve seen some neat Cook Island moderns, but they don&#039;t have the same look as the oldies.&nbsp; It&#039;s a modern coin with a fancier design.</p><p><br /></p><p>This Louis XIV medal (random example)<a href="https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/numiscorner/239/product/france_medal_louis_xiv_la_campagne_de_hollande_1672_mauger/1224052/Default.aspx" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/numiscorner/239/product/france_medal_louis_xiv_la_campagne_de_hollande_1672_mauger/1224052/Default.aspx" rel="nofollow">https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/numiscorner/239/product/france_medal_louis_xiv_la_campagne_de_hollande_1672_mauger/1224052/Default.aspx</a>&nbsp;&nbsp; is a really impressive coin, from the early modern era.&nbsp; I bought one with a neater reverse and even people from work who aren&#039;t into coins said, &quot;That&#039;s just cool.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Many of the AR Tetradrachms from the Seleucid realm have such high obverse relief that they are virtually 3-D.&nbsp; And let&#039;s not forget the famous (and expensive) Tetradrachms of ancient Syracuse.</p><p><br /></p><p>I recently picked up a budget example of a Seleucid: (the obverse has VERY high relief)</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1597603[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>That (and the history) is what attracted me into the ancients/early modern realm.&nbsp; I just love the look of struck coins.&nbsp; Although I have pitifully few, Spanish cobs are my favorites of the &#039;modern&#039; era.</p><p><br /></p><p>I cannot remember where I heard this story and it may just be an urban legend, but Teddy Roosevelt allegedly asked one of his Treasury officials about the possibility of making higher-relief coins.&nbsp; The reply was that it would take so long with modern equipment that the output would be pitiful.</p><p><br /></p><p>The composition was also vastly different.&nbsp; Take the current Tubman commemoratives, for example.&nbsp; Even the best of the lot, the silver dollar, has kind of a tepid reverse, some cartoonish figures with stars.&nbsp; One wonders what design the best of the Syracusian die engravers would have come up with?&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m also glossing over the many ugly ancient and medieval coins that also existed.&nbsp; Many of those also weren&#039;t purposely ugly.&nbsp; The thread would become overly long if I went into detail, but there were a variety of reasons.</p><p><br /></p><p>When did more elaborate coins go out of fashion?&nbsp; I&#039;d guess World War I.&nbsp; One still sees a lot of elaborate pieces from the Victorian era, which heavily borrowed from the Classical era.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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