Fake?

The Osca coin is very soft, indicating a copy.

Dougsmit: You have noted most of my thoughts and feelings on these, and have put them more eloquently than I would have.

That is why I have been a bit cagey so far on what I have posted in this thread.

With these sorts of coins, I ALWAYS want to examine them in hand before deciding to buy. If I have an uneasy feeling about them, the gut feeling says: 'DON'T'.

I always check for silver crystallisation, which simply cannot exist on a newly made fakes less than 100 years old. The problem with crystallisation is it is often hard to find. I check the edges very closely with a loupe, looking inside any edge cracks for metal distress, and for signs of metal flow across the surface.

I now have a small digital scales, but I don't know how sensitive they are to being carried in the pocket. I also like to check the VCOINS and WILDWINDS Sites for comparative styles and pricing.

All of this goes into my decision to buy. Even then, I like to buy from people I know.

I came across a set of about 20 Rhodian didrachms a couple of years ago, that I could not fault, a coin show. The price was only slightly below what I would have expected. They did not have much patination on them, all were in about VF. The seller said they were part of a hoard, recently discovered in Bulgaria. From what I remember of them, the original dies were all slightly different.

I was just not happy with them.
In that case, the same reaction:
The gut feeling said 'DON'T'.

I only saw that seller once. Never again.

dougsmit: You CAN run with the big dogs, but you need the professional services of a dealer who knows his stuff to do it.

The VERY first ancient Greek coin I bought was a gold stater of Philip 11 of Macedon, way back in 1978. This is one of the most commonly faked of all ancient Greek coins. I still have it.

At the time, I knew virtually nothing about Greek coins. 15 years were to elapse before I considered to have accumulated enough knowledge and confidence on Greek coins to make a purchase decision of my own volition.

The dealer I bought it from?

Spinks in London, through Noble Numismatics in Australia.
I still have ALL of the documentation and polaroid photographs to prove it. THEY will be sold with the coin, if I ever have the need to sell it.

I have not seen any matches to other coins in any of the fakes databases that I am aware of, which is always my starting point.

Stylistically thay all look good.

The surfaces are very worrying. They have a common, matt, almost satin finish to them, which is something we see on pressed fakes.

The conclusion is that these are pressed fakes made from modern transfer dies, which were created from real coins.

Martin