Scary: Fake Chersonesos hemidrachms

Just read at the German forum this thread about fakes by Amentia, from October 10:

viewtopic.php?f=49&t=53721&start=870#p570737

Hundreds of these Chersonesos were sold in lots of 25 but several also individually by a seller in the US, as well as legionary Denarii and Histaia fakes. Among the fakes are 2 sold by Harlan & Berk, 4 by Heritage (3 slabbed by NGC) and Triskeles.
HJB

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7277549

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7706447

Heritage

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=4406942

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=4657354

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=4603014

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=4591107

NGC verify

https://www.ngccoin.uk/certlookup/42438 ... CAncients/

https://www.ngccoin.uk/certlookup/42438 ... CAncients/

https://www.ngccoin.uk/certlookup/42438 ... CAncients/

About 99 of 100 are perfectly centered, while the real exemplars are usually not.

Be very careful when buying/bidding!

 

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This makes me afraid to buy any more coins (but not afraid enough). I looked at the links you provided, and as a layman, I couldn't tell they were fakes. If HJB can't tell, who can?

 

Not only HJB, also Heritage and NGC couldn't tell

 

Since I don’t read German, can someone explain the backstory behind these?

 

Like this one?

https://www.biddr.com/auctions/superior-galleries/browse?a=2967&l=3347732

 

probably a fake too

 

it's what I said in the OP; seller on EBay sold hundreds of these....

Amentia also explains why the Chersonesos hemidrachms are fake; I certainly can translate it, but if you click on viewtopic.php?f=49&t=53721&start=870#p570737 the pictures speak for themselves...

A link is also provided where you can find and I quote: "Questionable Cherronesos hemidrachm (2.3g), copy of McClean 4076-4077, with reverse of wreath and pellet: https://rg.ancients.info/lion/cherronesos.html

This is a probably modern forgery, sold as an authentic coin by a volume eBay seller who didn't respond to an email questioning it. Its being modern rests on four arguments:

1. Exaggeratedly long claw. The lion has a paw with an exaggerated claw. I've only seen one specimen documented in the literature with an exaggeratedly long claw, McClean 4125, though the symbols on the reverse are different than on this piece. Most Cherronesos lion hemidrachms have regular paws or paws off the flan. The Lipanoff Studio fake illustrated above has an exaggerated claw.

2. Exaggeratedly long neck. None of the 126 Cherronesos hemidrachms of all varieties illustrated in McClean, SNG Cop., Weber, SNG Lockett, and SNG Berry feature a lion with a neck like this. The only other piece I've seen with a neck like this is the Lipanoff Studio forgery illustrated above.

3. Unusual design of wreath. Specimens having the reverse of this coin, with a wreath and pellet, can be attributed among other ways as McClean 4076-4077, SNG Cop. 843, and BMC Thrace pg. 183, 14. BMC doesn't illustrate this variety, but McClean and SNG Cop. do. Neither the McClean nor the SNG Cop. specimen of this variety features a wreath like the wreath on this coin, which has a clearly demarcated circle separating the outer leaves from the inner leaves. Further, none of the three specimens of this variety that Barry Murphy illustrates at his site on these coins exhibits a wreath like this either.

4. Unusually thin flan. The flan on this coin looks unusually thin. These issues without letters, like this coin, are earlier than those with letters and are usually on dumpier flans. This coin has a wider, thinner flan characteristic of latter varieties.

This piece appears originally engraved, pressed, artificially worn, and artificially toned. It appears to be a more sophisticated deception than the fairly crude Lipanoff forgery illustrated above, though it may well be a later work by the same copyist, who chose an unusual and interesting obverse variety, with an exaggeratedly long claw, as his model while again failing to accurately replicate other key design and fabric characteristics of this coin type."

 

I'd be interested in pictures of the fake Histaia and legionary denarii as well. I know that I've seen fake legionary denarii for several years now, sold through Lanz and several others on Ebay. The fake Euboia Histaia coins I'm aware of are older, probably a decade or more ago, and I purchased them from a Dutch antiquities dealer. There was an article I read about all "flowing hair" Euboia silver fractions being fake around that time, and am curious as to whether the fakes being sold currently are the same ones.

 

My example.

Looks like mine is OK.

When did these fakes start hitting the market? I got this in 2015.


Thrace, Chersonesos (386 - 338 B.C.)
AR Hemidrachm
O:Forepart of lion right, head reverted.
R: Quadripartite incuse square with alternating raised and sunken quarters; pellet to left of VE monogram and pentagram above pellet in opposite sunken quarters.
13mm
2.4g
BMC 43; McClean –; Weber 2422; SNG Copenhagen –; SNG Dreer 115.

 

Translated from the German Forum:
https://www.numismatikforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=36407
where I also asked about mine:

At ANS you can find for comparison more than 700 that are not fakes, "Their accession numbers (1948.19.778 and 1948.19.779) point to the year 1948." before the Bulgarian fakes flooded the market.

http://numismatics.org/collection/1944.100.24042

http://numismatics.org/collection/1948.19.778

http://numismatics.org/collection/1948.19.779

http://numismatics.org/search/results?q ... 3AHistiaea

Barry Murphy defined criteria for identifying fakes, but some of the Histaia coins at ANS that satisfy these criteria are not fakes, and among the ones he pictures are some that are not fakes:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board ... #msg738880

Barry Murphy : "Please note the style of the obverse with the flowing hair, pointing
upwards, and the large pellets making up the flowers. This hair style
is not found on authentic examples. Also notice the rather poorly
executed reverse. On these forgeries AIEWN is always behind the
nymph, although this does exist on authentic examples as well. ISTI
is always before the nymph's feet. All have the wing on the prow,
some very poorly executed and none have any symbols below the prow"
http://bpmurphy.ancients.info/images/mi ... iacomp.jpg
doesn't seem to be a fake. This link is dead already but you can find it at the Way Back machine of archive.org here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180707235 ... .php?t=877

 

From the Cherronesos Coins publication that I linked above:
https://rg.ancients.info/lion/cherronesos.html

"The seller operates out of Germany and Las Vegas using different eBay I.D.s. He appears to be from Bulgaria, and these appear from their styling to be originally engraved, pressed Bulgarian School forgeries. This scammer has operated on eBay openly for eight years, selling hundreds of fakes of ancient coins and antiquities, the same ones over and over, to many thousands of people. One of his eBay I.D.s, victoriantiquities, was canceled by eBay in Nov. 2007 but only after more than 2,400 transactions."

The weight of your hemidrachm is good; maybe it is the picture, I just wonder why on the reverse, the star and the letter show almost no wear.

 

"The weight of your hemidrachm is good; maybe it is the picture, I just wonder why on the reverse, the star and the letter show almost no wear.[/QUOTE]"
Good question. But could this lack of wear be because the star and letter are in a lower, protected area, much as the lion's tongue and eye show little wear because they are protected? Not saying that is the answer, just asking.

 

That's what I was thinking. The star and the letter are on the incuse part of the reverse. Therefore, perhaps that's why they have less wear, than other parts of the coin.

 

@romismatist some fake legionary denarii are in this thread by @maridvnvm
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/new-fakes-part-3-mark-antony-times-7.384110/
or
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/mark-antony-legionary-denarius-leg-xx.313212/page-2

and here
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=122807.0

You may also find interesting the Delos Hoard:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=delos hoard

 

Troubling. It seems these were identified as fakes only because a very large number of them were sold by one seller on eBay. If they were released in a more subtle way I wonder if there would be any realistic way to identify them as forgeries, assuming you only had one example.

 

@Mat there are several of the same type as yours in corpus nummorum:
https://www.corpus-nummorum.eu/thrace/coins/47900

this one has two dots: https://www.corpus-nummorum.eu/thrace/coins/49452

But there is at least one and different Chersonesus fake in corpus nummorum:
https://www.corpus-nummorum.eu/thrace/coins/47926
The die is recognized by the ANS:


and I quote: "The Chersonesos dies are by the same sculptor. My inability to recognize them proves my understanding of that style of the artist's facing head fakes is overconfidence. I am not sure I would recognize fake Chersonesos coins without carefully consulting a scarce pamphlet-book Modern Forgeries of Greek and Roman Coins by Dimitrov, Prokopov, and Kolev."

https://digitalhn.blogspot.com/2017/09/black-sea-hoard-dies.html

 

Yes, these types with the flowing hair and the large pellets in the hair were the same ones which several numismatists condemned as fakes many years ago.

No issue with the German site, Deutsch ist meine Muttersprache...

 

Many thanks, @cmezner !

 

mine too

 

troubling indeed. I actually purchased one of these a while back myself. Any tell tale sign of it potentially being a forgery?