Identification Of Fake Ancient Coins

I know that david sear will authenticate coins for around $50 the cheaper tier and 60 or 70 for the photo authentication and that price has gone up double from what it used to be but other then that I dont think that the slabbing companies really hold much water with ancient collectors and to tell the truth I cant really pay 50 to authenticate a coin unless its a valuable piece. My only insurance that a coin is authentic is to buy from a few dealers in the UK that I trust. I'm far from an expert and the only way I know many of my coins are authentic is becuase they where fully encrusted when I bought them and even with that in mind I have read about many fakes in uncleaned lots. It helps to know where they where found I guess.

This thread made me remember a link that was posted awhile ago that talked about fake denarii, so I dug it up: http://www.tesorillo.com/fakes/index.htm

Not sure if this helps your thread sel but it looks useful.

I'm a rank beginner of ancients, and I follow much of the advice already posted.
with others--the best advice I can give would be to only buy from well-respected dealers who can provide a lifetime guarantee of authenticity. Dealers with such guarantees should be very experienced and careful of what they buy and sell, because they don't want to lose money or get on a blacklist. So I think it all starts with making good purchasing decisions.

Fake coins can be produced in a few different ways.

1.Die struck
2.cast
3.electrotype

Each of them have their own characterisrics to enable identification.

Ther are several dignostic approaches to do this.
They include:
1.Weight
2.Stylistic characteristics
3.Close visual inspection
4.Metal metal analysis.

Take a lot of time to read the link provided by ValiantKnight.

It is one of the best papers I have read on the detection of ancient fake coins in some years.

I have two books on the subject of fake coins:

Wayne Sayles book 'Classical Deception', which provides references to fake ancient coins, and refers to some of the well known fakes.
Charles M Larson's book 'Numismatic Forgery' describes in detail how to manufacture high quality fake coins by a number of different methods.

however,

neither of these books provide the reader with the actual means of detecting fakes for himself.

THAT is why I so strongly recommend and direct that anyone reading this thread to take the time to read the 'tesorillo' link provided by ValiantKnight.

Very fortunately, there are some very good and growing active fake coin data bases to be found on the Net. Using these, you can compare a coin that you may suspect with an example on the data base.