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Message:: [QUOTE="Orielensis, post: 3535800, member: 96898"]That depends on your definition of "fake". TIF has pointed out a crucial difference between collecting modern coins and collecting ancients: for modern collectors, a coin usually is "authentic" only if it was minted by an official, state-sanctioned mint. Everything else is "fake" or a token. This does not apply to ancients for several reasons, for example because it is all but impossible to define an "official mint" in the absence of a modern state. Furthermore, many ancient collectors are more interested in the history and aesthetics of their coins than in officiality or rarity. An ancient coin, as far as I understand it, is thus considered authentic if it is ancient. Ancient fourrées are 'authentic forgeries,' and the coin below is an 'authentic imitation.' I cherish it nonetheless and would even value it higher than a comparable official antoninian of Tetricus: [ATTACH=full]939817[/ATTACH] "Tetricus I" or similar, Roman Empire, barbarous radiate, late 3rd century AD, unofficial mint in Gaul or Britain. Obv: [...] I II II, bearded, radiate head r. Rev: V I [...]; human figure riding on stag l.; 13–14mm, 1.38g. Ex Ken Dorney.[/QUOTE]