The following coin is for sale on ebay by a well known, high feedback, German dealer. It is described as VF and smoothed. It is however absolutely modern and from modern dies. There is no way such as mistake should be made and is the reason that I avoid some sellers regardless. Martin
Do you think it's premeditated? 2 or so years ago I came across a Valens rare siliqua offered on his daily auctions and after contacting him with proof of it being a cast fake he pulled it out of the auction.
I have seen too many "mistakes" by them and communicated with them about to consider it incompetence at best. More often that not I have been ignored.
Increasingly, we seem to live in a world where deception is no longer clandestine. It is brazenly exercised out in the open, and if anyone cares to object, they are ignored or deflected.
For the record, the dealer in question has told me that "his" Ebay sales are a separate operation, almost completely distinct from the venerable auction house that bears his name. He is as involved in the conventional auctions as one would expect, but Ebay is a different animal entirely. The Ebay sales are pretty much an assembly line, grinding through a LOT of coins in a hurry, with minimal oversight from any expert and none at all from the eponymous dealer. Note that I don't see this as any sort of justification for the egregious errors and fakes in the firm's Ebay listings; if anything this casual wink and nod attitude is worse than outright incompetence. Note also that while it's absolutely true that no dealer in ancient coins, no matter how expert, can honestly claim never to be fooled by a fake or altered coin, this firm's conventional auctions also offer far more than their share of questionable items and worse. Phil Davis
Avoiding their ebay sales and auctions until they clean up their act is our best way to influence them. There are not that many ancient coin collectors in the world and for most of us it is a lifetime interest. Some dealers lost my business 30 years ago and have not gotten it back yet.
When you sell your name to fools or criminals, you are nothing more than they are. The number of people who feel they have to have a coin no matter what exceeds the number, including Theodosius, willing to stand up for right and do what they can to make the hobby a safe place to enjoy ourselves. You can be part of the solution or part of the problem; pick one.
Not surprising at all from Lanz. I don't think we should be hesitant at all to mention the seller in this context, the ancients community is small and those who regularly sell fake or altered coins deserve to have it known. Whether the reason is incompetence, laziness or malice it really doesn't matter, the result is still a seller that we should all avoid and we should do our best to warn fellow collectors away from. And just in case anyone buys his line about the eBay auctions being handled by a separate party, I've copied his response below to an email thread about an extremely rare aureus of Diadumenian which had been tooled and which should have been apparent to its cataloguer because a pre-tooling provenance was mentioned, but the most recent auction listing made no mention of the tooling: Restauration is not tooling. Beauty sells better not only in women. Dr. Hubert Lanz Here is the coin that was being discussed: A seller who sees no problem with this is a seller who is bad for the hobby and should be avoided at all costs. That response above told me all I needed to know about Lanz and whether he should be dealt with.
Please name them and shame them. I hate it when people receive fakes or spot fakes from big dealers and auction houses and keep quiet about the name of the source. That just makes it worse for the rest of us who have to guess and wonder whether we are buying from crooks or not. Everyone is entitled to an occasional mistake. Even experts with the best of intentions can be fooled once in a while. But when things get bad enough that you have to start questioning someone's integrity, and the dealer doesn't really seem to care about the quality of his stock, and shows disregard for his customers, you should make others aware of it so they too can avoid that source. If we don't look out for each other, who will?
I agree. This isn't Forvm. I think you should post the seller. If he/she puts it up for sale, they should be more than happy to get the extra publicity. I could post Lanz toolies and fakes all day long. It's actually sport!
Separate or not it bares his name, and he is still on the ticket. http://stores.ebay.de/NUMISMATIK-LANZ/About-Me
There's actually a very simple economic explanation for this. You see, cataloging coins and putting them up for auction takes time and at least a small amount of expertise. This place really churns it out, and that allows them to offer more low-value coins. Perfect in the eBay market. For other firms that tend to focus on higher priced coins, they can afford to spend a little more time with the coins, and that allows them to root out more fakes. The person who processed and cataloged this piece probably looked at it for no more than a few seconds. Had I not seen the third photo, and if I only had a few seconds to examine the coin, I'm pretty damn sure I'd say its real too. You see, its really just the numismatic equivalent of buying from a Chinese sweatshop. Ya, the products you get are going to have flaws, but that's the price you pay for getting them so cheap. Malevolence need not enter into the equation. Of course, I'm not saying sellings fakes is okay. But you - the consumer - are at least complacent in it. Don't approve? Don't shop there. They'll have to either change gears or close up shop.
Everyone makes mistakes. This we understand. Being unwilling to correct mistakes and treating customers as more trouble than they are worth is quite another matter. A dealer who does not have time to correspond (email) regarding their errors belongs in a flea market.
This is the point IMO. The high quality (supposed) auctions by Lanz are often nicely salted with fakes and tooled coins. I emailed them about this coin in their most recent public auction and never received a response. I've never received response from them, in fact, on any communication...ever. It was eventually withdrawn (insert golf clap), but it probably had to do more with outrage on boards like Lamoneta than my lonely email sent off into the Lanz abyss. And to Ady's point, I'm certain CNG would never put this thing in one of their auctions. Lanz as a company has serious issues IMO and it's a shame. Caveat emptor.
I have never purchased from Lanz. Being an end-consumer: I have always voted ($$$) with my feet based upon reviews, quality, fit-form-function, and customer care. And, I usually learn by experience, observing, and from Others' mistakes. Betcha I ain't the ONLY one that does this...
So is Dr. Herbert's Title a Ph.D. or Medical degree? ... or could it be an Honorarium like our own Southern "Colonel", in which case that would also be a fake? Just wondering how deep the deception goes...
