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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Theodosius, post: 2579201, member: 77077&quot;]Well, I fell in love with this Pan/Nike Hemilitron a while back:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/scored-a-bucket-list-goat-riding-hemilitron.274034/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/scored-a-bucket-list-goat-riding-hemilitron.274034/">https://www.cointalk.com/threads/scored-a-bucket-list-goat-riding-hemilitron.274034/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Like many love affairs this one seems to be destined to crash and burn.&nbsp; I am getting very suspicious that this coin is a fake.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]559523[/ATTACH]</p><p>Himera, Sicily, AE Hemilitron (corrected - thanks Steve!)</p><p>Obverse: Pan as a youth, holding thyrsos over his shoulder and about to blow on a conch shell, seated on goat walking right, six dots below</p><p>Reverse: IMERA, Nike advancing left holding aplustre. BMC 52; Arslan377, <u><b>23mm</b></u>, <b><u>9.11 grams</u></b></p><p><br /></p><p>This type should be struck under Bronze Reduced Litra Standard II and it should be between 5.78 and 6.22 grams and have a diameter of 18-21 mm (Hoover HGC V2 page</p><p>134).&nbsp; Mine is too big and too heavy.&nbsp; This should be enough to stop a person who is paying attention (doh!) from buying a coin.&nbsp; The weight being off this much is a very big red flag.&nbsp; The forgers probably used an ancient bronze coin as the flan for this fake (which can be very convincing) but did not select one of the correct weight. </p><p><br /></p><p>Acssearch confirms most examples are in the high 5 grams range.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=himera+hemilitron+pan" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=himera+hemilitron+pan" rel="nofollow">https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=himera+hemilitron+pan</a></p><p><br /></p><p>I am very suspicious of non archaic/non incuse coins that are very deeply struck the way the reverse of this one is.&nbsp; This is supposed to be a possible sign that a hydraulic press was used to make the coin and they really squished the die into the flan more deeply than hitting it with a hammer ever would.&nbsp; I am not sure this is a totally reliable way to detect a fake but to me it is a warning sign.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then I came across this deeply disturbing collection of fake dies posted in a yahoo discussion group on forgeries.&nbsp; Looking at all the coins represented I spotted my true love hiding in there in the middle of the bottom row:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/CoinForgeryDiscussionList/conversations/messages/36376" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/CoinForgeryDiscussionList/conversations/messages/36376" rel="nofollow">https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/CoinForgeryDiscussionList/conversations/messages/36376</a></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]559527[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Lots of very nice coins represented in this set of fake dies...&nbsp; The picture posted is not sufficiently high resolution to be sure my coin was made from these dies, but it adds another potential strike against the coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>What do you all think?</p><p><br /></p><p>John[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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