Some help on potential purchases

Does the fact that it looks kinda fuzzy give it away? That would be my guess just looking at it.

 

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As usual, I would have given both OP coins an opinion of probably genuine, as I don't see anything but wear, styling and perhaps suspect photos to say anything otherwise----yet the last may be a fake as Ken notes. 'Not an expert' appears to be my middle name LOL

 

Check this site below for some good photos on pressed examples:

http://counterfeitcoins.reidgold.com/slavey.html

 

Thanks Ken. I passed on the first because I had a bad feeling about it, from a style perspective. I won the second one, and later found a prior auction record at Kunker:

https://www.sixbid.com/browse.html?auction=2093&category=42215&lot=1790997

 

Hmmm. Maybe. It certainly looks mint state...maybe it was minted yesterday! There are plenty of very high quality examples of this issue extant so it didn't really set off alarms with me. I wouldn't condemn it outright and the photo makes it very difficult to understand what's going on with the surfaces. I wouldn't buy it from the pictures for sure.

 

The site certainly is a good resource for Slavey's but note the lack of 'flow' and cracks which seems usual for Slavey. There is another good resource for his fakes
http://www.ancients.info/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=511
but even these are a not complete. I find Slavey's Greeks more deceptive than his Romans but that might just mean I am more familiar with Romans. The Galabrio here strikes me as probably fake but it is not Slavey style. Of course there are many other people making fakes. Slavey claimed not to be making fakes to defraud but to provide replicas for people who could not have the real thing. His lack of attention to fabric strikes me as evidence that this may have been true. Of course many of his products have been doctored, antiqued, abused and passed off as genuine so it makes little difference what was his original intent.

I have posted this image here several times. I bought them for $4 each years ago. A few are not in the catalog but I believe all are Slavey's as opposed to other workers' product. None are really deceptive if you know the coins but the Pescennius Niger is one of the most common fakes I have seen sold on eBay over the last 20 years. While buying from good sources is still the best answer, learning the look of coins in that Slavey catalog is not a bad idea. From the link, select either Greek or Roman:
http://www.ancients.info/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=511

 

Thanks for the links: bookmarked!