Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 8056209, member: 128351&quot;]A friend of mine used to say : &quot;There is no such thing as an authentic coin, there are only well-made fakes&quot;. I wonder which philosophical school he belongs to, sceptical? cynical? tongincheekal?</p><p>Let&#039;s be serious. If these coins are actually fakes, I must admit I would never had suspicions just looking at the photographs. You say they are fakes just because the seller openly says so, and I suppose he sells them for a very cheap price. But is there anything else (the weight, for ex.?) that could enable a trained eye to distinguish a fake?</p><p>Let us admit it is now possible to forge fake ancient coins so perfectly that they cannot be distinguished from authentic ones any more, and that the forger&#039;s own word is now the only possible reason for which they can be considered fakes. It would be a revolution in the domain of numismatics. We are now entering the Era of Suspicion. The only authentic coins will be the ones with a real verifiable pedigree proving they were already in private or public collections before perfect forgeries were technically possible. And also, of course, the coins dug out from controlled archaeological excavations. </p><p>I am still a bit sceptical. If so well-made and deceiving fakes can actually be forged, it must be relatively easy and at a very low cost. A worn Roman Republican denarius is not a decadrachm of Akragas or an <i>Eid Mart</i> aureus. The operation of forging ancient coins must be profitable, or if it&#039;s not, what for? </p><p>Another question is : are we sure they are fakes? I know a collector who posted on instagram some rare coins telling they were fakes, but not telling why he was so positive, and a few months later I found these very coins (or their perfect clones) auctioned as authentic by a serious and well-reputed house. As a matter of fact, I could not, from just the good photographs, distinguish any reason to suspect them.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in