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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Valentinian, post: 4364041, member: 44316&quot;]Fourrés are ancient counterfeits of silver coins (or gold coins) made by wrapping a thin silver (gold) foil around a base metal (usually copper) core and striking it with dies in order to pass it for a genuine silver coin. Silver was 80-100 times as valuable as copper, so there was a large profit to be made replacing good silver with copper. (There are other types of ancient counterfeits, but they are not called fourrés unless they use this foil technique and are struck.)</p><p><br /></p><p>The trick was, of course, passing the coin and not getting caught. Often the dies are far from official style and it seems the coin would only pass to drunks in a dark tavern. However, sometimes the style is close to official. Before the silver broke off at the rim, this counterfeit looked pretty good.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1103033[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Septimius Severus obverse combined with a Caracalla reverse. </p><p>18-17 mm. 2.61 grams (light, but not too obvious).</p><p>SEVERVS PIVS AVG, laureate head right</p><p>PART MAX PONT TRP IIII, trophy with two captives</p><p>The obverse legend of Severus belongs to 201-210, but without this reverse type, and the TRP IIII belongs to this reverse for Caracalla in year 201 (RIC 54, BMC page 45 double dagger footnote). The combination of two sides that do not belong together is called a hybrid (or a mule). Fourrés are often hybrids. Counterfeiters had little incentive to make sure the sides were paired in the official manner.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>This example makes the copper underneath very clear.</p><p><br /></p><p>For a website with much more about ancient (not modern) counterfeits, see here:&nbsp; </p><p><a href="http://augustuscoins.com/ed/imit/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://augustuscoins.com/ed/imit/" rel="nofollow">http://augustuscoins.com/ed/imit/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Show us some ancient counterfeits![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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