Too Much Yellow!

I see what you mean about the extra dot. There is also the 'swelling' starting from that dot and expanding towards the front of the neck, and a raised area on the back of the neck.
On 7 pieces in a row that's certainly suspicious...

If I may ask, how were the circles on the shoulder made to look different on each specimen?

Hi Bob,

Just had a look...
Yes I agree there's something amiss!

I'm out of my depth here but can a punch and die be used then fill some of the details and then reuse maybe moving the blanks around and striking off centrethats what my amateur eye tells me!
Paul

If these are struck (likely) one thing to consider is the quality of the die itself and the technology and consistency of the force of the strike, while at the same time ensuring that it at least looks ancient. This can account for why the pellets look different.

Additionally I have highlighted some die flaws that seem entirely unlikely if these were actually real, and these are found on every single one of these coins. These raised marks are so tiny that had these coins been buried and dug up I find it hard to believe they would still be present. That said, it isn't definitive proof, but I wouldn't touch any of these coins.

We call it a die transfer fake. Some sophisticated fakes out of China have been showing up (Classic US coins, German Thalers, among others) using genuine coins as a host so that all the details look, for the most part, legit. The ONLY tell are "sister" marks, which I highlighted in your examples above, these are identical marks that should not exist on pairs or groups of coins. In an Ancient coin, it is even less likely there should be any sister marks given the complete lack of consistency in everything about the minting process at that time. This is a dirty business indeed, and to be quite frank, if this is the level of quality fakes in ancients, I may just stop buying them altogether. Unlike with more modern coins, where you have die studies and can root out fakes such as these, with ancients, it is nigh impossible to do that. This seller made a mistake in that they listed all the fakes at once, giving collectors an opportunity to see the obvious sister marks that just shouldn't exist. Should have run these out one at a time over a period of months. Greed I suppose. Or, the seller honestly has no idea, or doesn't ask questions of the source/supplier.

Have a look at the two Orodes I drachm he recently added. They also seem to come from the same die pair with very similar wear patterns. I am not a student of this series and cannot say how often double die matches occur but something doesn't smell right with the matching wear patterns.

Yes, Zach Beasley (VCoins management) emailed me this morning to let me know that the dealer was asked, by Zach, to remove the coins.

The ''A'' is back!!

And the ''Z'' never really left!