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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2553681, member: 19463&quot;]This post has been an eye opener for me.&nbsp; I expected many people to catch it like Martin did.&nbsp; It proved several things.&nbsp; First, it showed that it is dangerous o look too closely and rely too much on magnifiers and microscopes.&nbsp; If I had asked the same question showing the entire coins would it have been better?&nbsp; I attach the full images of the other three coins below but will leave them as thumbs so you can decide if you want to click on them or not.&nbsp; Below them is the answer.&nbsp; Read if and when you wish.</p><p>[ATTACH]549075[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]549076[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]549077[/ATTACH] </p><p>The coin in image #3 is Rome mint of Septimius Severus and is the highest grade portrait coin of his that I have.&nbsp; I regret the reverse centering but I definitely would not have afforded it were the reverse as nice as the obverse. </p><p><br /></p><p>The other three coins were cut by the same artist working in a mint located in what we now call Bulgaria.&nbsp; His name is Slavey Petrov, a faker of fame in the 1990&#039;s.&nbsp; His coins were struck from hand cut dies in a style that is just plain wrong for the coins he copies.&nbsp; His coins were struck in silver salvaged, I am told, from old European coins.&nbsp; They are all in the same style as each other so his copy of the Pescennius Niger (#5 and #6) from the East is too similar to his Rome mint Pertinax (#4 and #1). <i>The answer here is #3 was the only genuine coin shown; the rest are modern fakes.</i>&nbsp; They are not high tech deceptive fakes but they are the sort of thing appropriate for sale in gift shops.&nbsp; Slavey claimed he did not work to cheat people but to make things for collectors who could not afford the real ones.&nbsp; He copied only rare coins.&nbsp; The Septimius here is rarest of the bunch with lion skin bust (Martin called it cuirass which is stretching the point).&nbsp; Harvard has an aureus with the lion.</p><p><a href="http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/art/195903" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/art/195903" rel="nofollow">http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/art/195903</a></p><p><br /></p><p>The Pescennius is most frequently seen offered as real and i the worst of his products. The style is wrong (too good), the metal is wrong (too pure) and the fabric is wrong (too thin).&nbsp; I paid $4 each for these back in the early 1990&#039;s.&nbsp; There are currently openly identified examples for $12-$20 meaning the rate of return on my investment in these mint state beauties is greater than any of my real coins from that period. Coin #3 cost me $150 in 1994 so a 4-5x increase would make it have to be worth $600-$750 to have kept up.&nbsp; Is it?&nbsp; Was it then?&nbsp; These are the questions that make the hobby as we know it.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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