Hello from Wales and a request for help.

Welcome to the Darkside, it is nice to have someone from Wales here (until you start typing in Welsh, we have to draw the line somewhere and for me 17 letter words with double L and double G spellings is going a step to far). As long as you are careful not to throw in any of those confusing Welsh words I'm happy to have you.

 

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Croeso Dafydd,
Welcome from another Welshman. That are indeed both modern fakes.
Regards,
Martin

 

Welcome

 

Many thanks all for the warm welcome and the not so good news. I guess I walked into that one! In hindsight which of course is the only precise science, why would a dealer let loose something that could be worth a lot of money without researching it.
I was fooled by the poor condition, why would someone offer a fake in such a poor state? I think I let curiosity get the better of me. I'll see what I can do to retrieve my money and fortunately it was not a lot but any money paid for a fake is not worth it. I have been involved in the antique arms business for many years as a hobby which started with my visits to the USA and I can think of some dealers who have no interest or passion in what they do and could as well sell candy bars because they are only motivated by money so often they let things slip through because they can't be bothered to research. In this instance I think that wasn't the case and my curiosity got the better of me. I can't even say that I was fooled by greed because I just thought it would be fun to try and find out what they were.
Having read the "ebay" advice on fakes I have some street sense but had never considered the possibility of people faking coins in condition that would not be seen as collectible with modern coinage. Of course this has a neat twist to it, the dealer told me emphatically that he did not know what he had so if he has a return he has a perfect excuse. I've learnt a lot in the past 24 hours thank you!
I've been collecting ancients for about a year now and started off with later Follis but now have ambitions of the Republic and twelve Caesars and specific periods such as the year of the four Caesars etc.
I'll not try any Welsh on anyone as I don't speak it, not many of us do. My father was Dutch and my mother was Welsh whose parents spoke Welsh but they call my piece of Wales ( Pembrokeshire ) "little England beyond Wales". To answer some specifics, I am about seven hours drive from Northumberland and the first coinage in Wales was actually cattle and sheep that had specific values! We didn't see coins of our own making until Medieval times although I stand to be corrected.

 

it happens to best of us, and it is no shame but a good lesson. hang in there and welcome to the dark side. things will only get better here

 

Always buy from very knowledful and reliable sources that offer lifetime guarantee

 

Hello Again and I seek some more help. This coin is supposed to be NRCV 1390 Pompey Denarius but I'm not sure. It doesn't look like the coin on the Forum Ancient Coins fake report and I'm hoping this is a good one?


As you can see my photography needs improvement and I hope time and practice will cure that problem.

 

It looks absolutely nothing like an authentic example unfortunately. It's definitely a fake.

 

Fake, certainly-- and although the images are dark it does look like a match to the Forvm fake examples.

 

I would completely blacklist the seller(s) selling you these. Whoever it is is either completely incompetent for a seller or nefarious. IMHO there's little difference between the two when it comes to sellers.

 

Croeso i CT, mrawd!

 

Many thanks all. I think I have scraped the bottom of the barrel now with my dubious acquisitions. Thankfully I can return them.
Oh and Diolch Ragnarok.

 

Something to remember about ancients is there are thousands of coins that are the only survivor of their type. Almost any specialist in a narrow subject will have one or more. When there is only one, there is absolutely no reason to expect the coin will be EF or AG. Anything is possible. There is no protection from fakes by collecting only ugly coins and there is no reason to believe that a coin is too good to be true. Taking mint state fakes of popular and expensive coins and dressing them to look like they were too poor to be fakes is something of a cottage industry. A $5 fake is not likely to be confused with a $5000 original but we are regularly shown those same $5 fakes abused to look like a $100 junker. That is still a good profit margin. One of the big name fakers of the 19th century would 'age' his wares by putting them in the wheel hub of his carriage. Rural fakers in the Balkans are said to 'age' coins by feeding them to a goat and recovering them after 'processing'. This is an art form constantly being developed and upgraded.

 

Thank you Doug, I'm learning fast. Incidentally I am also learning from your website and will focus on photography, no pun intended.

 

Too much information. Today I will not sleep thinking about the goat...

 

Think about the harvester!!!!!!

 

A love of ancients could keep you alive forever! Welcome, Dafydd!

 

Don't get discouraged, Dafydd! Check out vcoins.com. If you’re a first time user you'll have to register before you can purchase anything.

 

Be careful if you drink expensive coffee...

 

Welcome, @Dafydd .
There are very many genuine coins at coin shows. They vastly outnumber the fakes. But, collectors have little use for fakes so they tend to stay for sale. Any dealer who buys collections will pick up some occasionally. Many are just tourist fakes or museum reproductions bought by someone's father or grandfather on a trip to Italy. The good dealers pull out the fakes and remove them from circulation. However, a small-time dealer with no reputation to protect might decide to offer them at an attractive price and figure out some way to not outright lie about them.

If any seller does not guarantee his coins are genuine there is the possibility he is honest but not much of an expert. However, that situation is not the source of most fakes. They are offered by small-time dealers and eBay sellers who offer coins they know, or strongly suspect, are false. Some are outright criminals, but many are offered by people of low morals who cannot pass up the chance to cash in on anything that looks like it might have value. (There are web sites that list eBay fakesellers.)

I have a website for beginners
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/numis/
and I used to have my e-mail prominently on it. I would regularly get questions of the sort "My dad died and left me this coin. What is it worth?" Usually the answer was "It is a modern fake of such-and-such, worth nothing. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news." Usually (really, more often than not) I would in less than a week see it on eBay as "Coin of such and such" with either no disclaimer or, buried in the description, something like "Sold as is" or "I am not a coin expert, so I can't guarantee it." This was so irritating I made my e-mail a lot harder to find.

I suppose some of those sellers can live with themselves and claim a dubious sort of honesty by not actually asserting they were genuine (even though they knew they were false.)

@Dafydd, stick with us and you will discover a great hobby.