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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Odysseus, post: 2425313, member: 78274&quot;]Good evening all,</p><p>I was privately called by an user of this forum to post my opinion on this thread.</p><p>The coin posted here by Theodosius IMHO is a forgery, struck on a genuine ancient flan by modern fake dies probably obtained by transferring and reworking an original type from a genuine host coin. This type variant was a great rarity indeed, until ten years ago: only three specimens were known according to Calciati (CNS vol.III p.174). Starting 2006 many more specimens appeared on the market, all forgeries struck by fake dies, that the forger improved over time, especially the obverse where (like the sample posted by Theodosius shows) there was at first a ridiculous rendering of the eagle&#039;s eye and beak, resembling a pigeon, and errors in epigraphy.</p><p>Beyond stylistic matters, I will not clearly explain in details why they all are fakes, because disclosing too much technical informations is the best way to help forgers to improve their infamous work. But let&#039;s play a sort of quiz... try to sharpen your observation and spot at least one problem by yourself... in particular, there is an obvious detail screaming &quot;Transferred die, forgery!&quot;, a detail that could not in any way recur, but we can see it on Theodosius&#039; sample and on the five specimens I link here:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://numismaticfakes.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/akrafake.jpg?w=700" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://numismaticfakes.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/akrafake.jpg?w=700" rel="nofollow">https://numismaticfakes.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/akrafake.jpg?w=700</a></p><p><a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1374617" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1374617" rel="nofollow">https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1374617</a></p><p><a href="http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=83947" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=83947" rel="nofollow">http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=83947</a></p><p><a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2013092" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2013092" rel="nofollow">https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2013092</a></p><p><a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1732679" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1732679" rel="nofollow">https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1732679</a></p><p><br /></p><p>If you spot it leave a comment here:</p><p><a href="https://numismaticfakes.wordpress.com/2016/04/14/akragas-fake-recently-listed-on-auction-griechische-munzen/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://numismaticfakes.wordpress.com/2016/04/14/akragas-fake-recently-listed-on-auction-griechische-munzen/" rel="nofollow">https://numismaticfakes.wordpress.com/2016/04/14/akragas-fake-recently-listed-on-auction-griechische-munzen/</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Italian is not my native language, but I can easily read it because my father was Italian and he taught me to read from his books. The opinions by Lamoneta experts I cited on my blog on that coin were unanimous indeed, when you read &quot;un capolavoro&quot; (&quot;a masterpiece&quot;), it is sarcastic, no one of those experts would ever dream to doubt it is a fake. Of course I cannot disclose the identity of numismatists writing on lamoneta, you just have to trust me when I say that they are skilled experts and reliable scholars. Sorry folks, I fear I&#039;ll be unpopular now here, but the truth is that european numismatists (Italians in particular) are much more skilled than americans when dealing with spotting fakes. I saw at least three fakes certified by Sear (one I posted on my blog, a second sestertius of Nero, another one a tesserae of Augustus), to not mention Hoover&#039;s books. Going back to the Akragas bronze sold by Kuenker, discussed on lamoneta and posted on my blog, it screams &quot;fake&quot; also looking at it from miles away, it is pressed, and later tooled... simply numismatic butchery.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>With kindest regards.</p><p>Raul</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>PS It is not the case of this coin, but the same I&#039;ll say this for those reading my blog and using this forum: please do not send me anymore emails asking expertise on your coins, I cannot reply to those kind of messages or I should spend all my life doing that. I will not give private expertise to anyone. Just post your questions on the Italian forum <a href="http://www.lamoneta.it" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.lamoneta.it" rel="nofollow">www.lamoneta.it</a> (you can also write in English, it is not against the rules), if you have doubts on your coins, or even on coins you are planning to buy (not against the rules screening purchases or linking to seller&#039;s sites, the only rule is to not talk about values of coins you plan to buy), in some time someone will surely help you.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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