Fake Greek coins?

Do you mind PMing some of their eBay names to me? Sounds like it would be fun to watch some of those listings.

 

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It is a decent board. I think you will like it here. I've been a member for a couple of years and, to be honest, yours is the first negative comment about this board that I've read. So give it a chance before you jump to any conclusions.

There were a small handful of members of the CFDL that kind of poisoned the atmosphere for everyone with their arrogance and conspiracy theories. That's why I stopped following the group. But it was only a very small minority. Most of the people on it were nice and many were quite knowledgeable.

 

Those guys are gone now, they moved onto CoinTalk. At least one of them did

 

I see it is an exchange rate price of ~$1, but guess I don't see many ancients start at $1. It would seem that most would be reserved because I don't think you could buy a nice silver Greek coin for <$100 or <100 Euro.

 

I suppose that would depend on what you call "nice silver Greek coin". I have many that cost me less than $100, with a few that cost much less. This one in particular, while not spectacular, only cost me $67 shipped.

APOLLONIA PONTIKA
AR Hemiobol
OBVERSE: Anchor, A in field
REVERSE: Swastika with two parallel lines in each quadrant
Struck at Apollonia Pontika, circa 500BC
.28g, 6.54mm
SNG BM 149; Moushmov 3146
ex. Aegean Numismaics

While this one set me back a mere $45

SIKYONIA SIKYON
AR Hemidrachm OBVERSE: Chimaera standing left, with heads of snake, lion & goat, raising forepaw, ΣΙ below REVERSE: Dove flying left
Struck at Skyon, Fourth Century BC 2.6g, 17mm
SNGCop 57, BMC 111

 

How much% silver does most Alexander the Great silver coins contain?

 

You might think that reserves would be necessary or prudent, but that is not the case for good Greek silvers sold in Europe on eBay by established sellers.

 

These might not be the greatest, but each of them was less than $100

 

I have seen sources that say they are almost 100% pure. The tetradrachms are supposed to weigh 17.3 g if I remember correctly.

 

I totally Agree with @TheRed AVOID EBAY specially the seller you dont know. as rule of tumb , if I buy anything from ebay it is NGC slabbed otherwise I will not take the risk.

 

I actually did XRF analysis on most coins I have in my collection (for study and authentication purposes) and found that alexander the great coins and greek archaic coins till early seleukid (I tested up to antiochus III) are almost 98.5 to 99.3% silver content as well as trace elements.

 

I used to have a procedure that I always followed when I saw a coin being offered by a vendor on Ebay from whom I have never bought anything. First I would look at all the rest of his coins and if I saw something I didn't like I would not buy from him. I would look at his history of sales as well and if I found something like he has.... say 1000 positive feed backs but 990 of them are cheap pocket books, again I would avoid him.

 

Wow, thanks

 

A little piece of advice;Ebay is fine. Just use a little common sense. I buy almost everything I can on ebay. There is NO way you can ever get decent coins cheaper.Not even vcoins( which I have found that they are very overpriced alot of the time) I won an auction months ago and got a Cleopatra VII coin for just a few dollars. Try pulling that off on Vcoins!

As for your statement about NGC slabbed? You couldnt be more wrong.NGC doesnt guarantee authenticity. I will repeat that:

NGC DOES NOT GUARANTEE AUTHENTICITY

NGC only guarantees grading. and even then theres no end to the debates about how they judge grading.NGC has admitted this on their site:

“...due to the inconsistency of opinions on these matters in the marketplace, no guarantee is made or implied about the authenticity of coins graded by NGC Ancients.”

"NGC Ancients...does not guarantee authenticity, genuineness or attribution, nor is any guarantee of these aspects implied...with ancient coins NGC Ancients will only guarantee the grade...WARNING: THIS GUARANTEE IS LIMITED TO GRADING ONLY"

I have known many people who have gotten slabbed fakes before. Even the best coin collectors/experts can get fooled from time to time.And sellers usually sell NGC slabbed coins for a lot more money than non-slabbed ones.

Pressed counterfeit coins can be difficult to tell if not in hand, but are usually easily detected by weight and dimensions when compared to known coins. This is something you cannot do if the coin is in encased in a slab.

And for a history buff like myself it defeats the purpose of owning coins to begin with. I like to actually have the coin in my hand- to hold a real piece of history. If I wanted to see coins behind glass or plastic I could go to a museum and see better ones than I own.

I havent been doing this that long and even I and friends of mine have learned this the hard way.

Coin currency has been around many centuries before Christ. Counterfeiting has been around not long after that.

So please dont make the same mistake others did. I wouldn't want you to waste your money thinking slabbed coins are always genuine.

Have a good one,

April

 

April, I guess you are not very familiar with NGC experts they have one of top experts in ancients and it is not just one few experts examine the coin and if the coin deemed as suspicious or fake they will NOT slab them I challenge you to send me a proven fake that was slabbed. I have seen many many coins and fakes and yet did not see one that was NGC slabbed. I talked to many dealers online on VCoins even on major auction houses and they told me they trust NGC authenticity the most. Now the fact that NGC does not guarantee authenticity officially does not mean they are not good at authenticating the coins at all.

As the matter of fact you should be very careful on Ebay, the cheap prices are for a reason!!!

Arash

 

Here you go, for sale on eBay right now: https://www.ebay.com/itm/c-46-BC-SI...854914?hash=item4d77d3dc02:g:NMIAAOSwMiNbTQpT

Cast fake in an NGC slab. Check FORVM fake reports for twins. Discussed here before but the seller previously pulled the coin. For whatever reason they've gone and relisted it even after I warned them that it was fake.

 

Interesting! first of all without seeing it in my hand I can not say for sure it could be corroded or badly cleaned I am sure NGC had it at hand rather than an image to make a decision

 

There is no question, it is a cast fake. There are pictures of several cast twins out there. NGC just screwed up. Every dealer and auction house makes mistakes as well though. It just shows you can't trust anyone 100%, not even NGC.

 

Ok but I bet you that you will not see many coins like this in NGC slabs. I would say 90% their coin is authentic. Still far far more safe than non slabbed coins on ebay

 

Red_spork is 100% right. I know that NGC will send your coin back if it is discovered to not be authentic, but we have no idea how rigorous they test them. Red_spork just proved NGC made a mistake.

arashpour,I just quoted you a paragraph from NGC themselves stating that they DO NOT guarantee authenticity... only grading.

and NGC slabbed are way more expensive.. as i already stated. For what? For a piece of plastic shell with a hologram?

Trust me, its just not worth it..
and as i said- with a little common sense, Ebay is fine, A lot of people on here sell on ebay( i dont- i buy only- for now)

NGC does have great experts working with them- this is true... but even the best coin experts have been fooled by modern fakes.

No fake is 100% perfect. but no coin expert is either.

and Vcoins is overpriced. I have seen garbage on there that nobody wants for hundreds. Not sure how much I would trust those sellers.

You do what you want- Feel free to ignore our good advice and blow your money on NGC slabbed coins, but dont say you werent warned.

By using common sense and actually have the coin in your hand( to measure weight and diameter, not to mention metallurgy testing kits , you can do just fine without every buyin an NGC slab.

NGC never uses testing kits. because the kits can slightly alter/ damage the coin sheen( such as a silver testing kit)

In fact i am thinking of removing the ones out of the case that I have now. Its just not worth it( unless I am going to sell to suckers who think NGC coins are always 100% authentic )

And I have no need to sell any of my coins- yet.

I just prefer to buy from trusted sellers with good reputations. But even they can make a mistake( this happened to me just 2 months ago- He is an expert and even he made a mistake- he refunded my $ and all is good)

And you are ignoring the fact that they have already developed ways to fake NGC slabs ( the shell/hologram). Look them up online.


and they are only getting better and better. I came across a fake case before... never bought it -thank God, but so you see now? You cant trust anyone. But do whatever you want, Its your money. Red_spork and I are just are informing the board as well so the rest of the good people on here dont make the same mistake in trusting NGC as much as you do.

There isn't a test that's been created that a smart man can't find his way around!

Have a good day.
April