Does anyone know how common forgeries of late roman ae4 coins from the late-fourth and fifth centuries are? I'm trying to expand my 'fall of Rome' collection but aren't as familiar with them that earlier Roman coins. Unlike earlier Roman coins, late ae4s are often quite crudely executed, making the potential for modern fakes more likely. They're also harder to inspect online in comparison with larger, silver ones. Does anyone know have any experience with fake Roman ae4s and know how to distinguish them from the real ones? Many thanks.
There has been a HUGE uptick in forgeries of the extra rare/desirable monogram AE4s, facilitated mostly by the auction house Emporium Hamburg. Almost all of these AE4s are poor modern fakes: https://www.acsearch.info/search.ht...de=1&fr=1&it=1&es=1&ot=1¤cy=usd&order=0 Here's a frightening thread on CCF where a member bought a Zenonis AE4 from a reputable dealer - I managed to trace the provenance back to Hamburg - a quick acetone bath confirmed my suspicion as all of the detail dissolved off the coin revealing that it was just a slug with fake patina applied to create a portrait and monogram. https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=353775
I've had a look and that's such a shame. Plastic patina is a trick I've never heard of before. How easy is it to spot?
I imagine it would be pretty hard to spot with just pictures. Considering how many of these have been sold recently it seems.
is the 200 pound sterling vcoins Basiliscus AE4 a real one? Not implying either way. It's just one of those coins where one has to use imagination to see what it is.
