LRBs and fakes

[Sandgrounder]

Hi,

In Sear's Greek Coins and Their Values he states "The problem of counterfeit coins is largely avoided by the collector who specialises in bronzes". Recognising that this book was written some years ago and that no category of coin is exempt from modern forgery, would such a statement remain broadly true for LRBs?  I have always struggled to see how anyone would go to the trouble and expense of making a decent forgery of a coin that might sell for less than £50 and yet you do occasionally see even common coins such as Constantius II campgates on sites like Ilya Prokopov's. My question to Victor and others who have far more experience of LRBs than I do is this - just how common are fake LRBs? I only buy from reputable dealers and auction houses so don't have any particular concerns, I'd just be interested to know whether collecting LRBs makes problems less likely.

Ian.

[Victor]

In the past decade or so, a lot of fake bronzes have turned up. They can be made very cheaply and enough people buy them from places like eBay that a profit can be made. A lot of fakes showed up years ago mixed with uncleaned coins, but on inspection these crude coins did not fool anyone. More deceptive coins turn up though, but generally there are things that are off with all of them. Overall, I don't think that fakes are very common though. One good thing also, once you learn to recognize some of the signs of fakes, you can spot them easier, for example- long split edges rather than proper flan cracks, these splits remind me of when you make cookies and press too hard, this is often indicative of pressed fakes. This is just one diagnostic, there are many ways that fakes differ depending on the method of manufacture. Plus, after you are familiar with some of the more common fakes, you will easily recognize them when they show up again.

The other issue is with cast coins. People counterfeited coins in antiquity cheaply and easily by making casts. It can be very hard and even impossible to tell an ancient cast from one made a few years ago.

Overall, fake LRB's are not a big concern; but I am sure that there are fakes so good that you would not be able to know the difference, but these are surely few and far between. If you are interested in how forgers make copies, I highly recommend the book Numismatic Forgery by Charles M. Larson, it is really informative.

[Sandgrounder]

Thanks, Victor. I will dig out a copy of Numismatic Forgery. Talking of good books, I'm currently reading Julian by Gore Vidal. If you like historical fiction well grounded in the sources and which covers a significant part of the late Roman period, I would highly recommend it. Vidal has done for Julian the Apostate what Mary Renault did for Alexander the Great in her excellent Fire from Heaven trilogy.

[Alisdair]

My first encounter with fake late Roman bronze coins was  when I had a few which were mixed in with a lot of uncleaned coins. Even to my untrained eye at the time, they seemed wrong: the fields were way too smooth and some dodgy black fake patina had been slapped on.

One Late Roman Bronze Coin which turns up regularly as a fake is the Julian bull type.It's popular and sells well, hence the incentive to make fakes...