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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 671907, member: 112&quot;]I would have a bet a million dollars that&#039;s what you were going to say. But now tell me this - who exactly was it then that they were buying them from ? </p><p><br /></p><p>And why doesn&#039;t it make sense ? Here in the US we collect counterfeits. In Europe there are those who collect counterfeits. Is it culturally nonsensical for us to do so ?</p><p><br /></p><p>The quote specifically states that the counterfeit cost more than a genuine denarius. In other words, you couldn&#039;t walk up to this person who had the fake coin and give them a genuine denarius in exchange for the fake one. You had to give them a genuine denarius PLUS additional money. So, assuming you are correct, who was it that had these coins and was selling them to the moneychangers ?</p><p><br /></p><p>Moneychangers at that time saw fake coins in the course of their business almost every day. They would refuse to take them - so they had no reason to want to buy them to study them. Moneychangers sat at their tables on the docks and in the markets with their scales, touch stones and karat needles right there with them. It was virtually impossible to fool them and pass a fake coin to them. </p><p><br /></p><p>Think of their tools. A scale is obvious, pretty much anybody can operate a scale and get accurate readings. They knew to within a grain what a genuine coin was supposed to weigh.</p><p><br /></p><p>A touch stone - in skilled hands a touch stone could tell you the purity of gold or silver to within a few percent.</p><p><br /></p><p>Karat needles - in skilled hands karat needles could tell you the purity of gold or silver to the karat.</p><p><br /></p><p>So money changers had no need to study the fake coins. They would throw them in the dirt.</p><p><br /></p><p>The people who worked at the mints of the time were just as skilled as the money changers. And they had no need or desire to study fake coins either.</p><p><br /></p><p>No, I&#039;m, afraid there is only 1 type of person who would have had any interest at all in fake coins of that time - a collector.</p><p><br /></p><p>But now let me ask you a different question. Why are you so sure that they would not have collected coins 2000 years ago ? Do you have any books to point to that say they absolutely did not ? </p><p><br /></p><p>Now while I can&#039;t tell you the specific book or books to look at, I can tell you that if you read the collected works of Dr. Philip Grierson you would find the evidence you want. Or if you wish, I&#039;ll be happy to privately provide you with the email address of the Curator of the Fitzwellian Museum in Cambridge, England. I&#039;m reasonably certain he can point you in the right direction to find the evidence.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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