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 Replies: 21 / Views: 4,007 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4253 Posts |
Just curious as to everyone's opinion of this Probus Antoninianus and what is it's attribution:  HINT: I have my reasons for asking |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1316 Posts |
I'm not sure what the attribution is, but it looks like it has odd surfaces, the edge my have a seem, so could this be a fake...I hate to use that word...  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
549 Posts |
I have concerns about its authenticity. Certainly the diagonal drapery on the reverse figure is wrongly done or tooled. The portait is very odd. The pupil of the eye comes out which is wrong. The rivets on the right shoulder of the cuirass are rings, rather than clear bumps. That is not right. Overall, I think a very high percentage of Probus coins are genuine. I don't think this one is.
-- Warren
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
The coin looks odd to me also, it's overall appearance just doesn't look right.
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Valued Member
Netherlands
409 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2100 Posts |
It is a fake. Part of a batch of ants of Probus and Carus that have been salted into uncleaned lots. They have been seen to be sold in mixed batches of 1,000. Here is another example:-  In a group  As they appear in uncleaned batches  Martin |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
augustus1: I like your style.
I also see that you do not like the style on the coin.
I like that as well, because I agree with you.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4253 Posts |
You are all correct. I saw this coin forcsale on ebay and thought the same as most of you. But it took me some digging to find it. There is no doubt it is a fake. Even helvetica's has it tagged as fake at the bottom of her Probus page. Good eye on all of you. |
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Moderator
United States
23731 Posts |
Resently there appears to be a number of fake coin of Probus being found more so than any other emperor in his time period. For the most part his coins are not rare and wouldn't bring in a high price. I wonder why we are seeing his coins and not say Aurelian or Claudius II?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5155 Posts |
Did the dealer realize its a fake, did you buy it knowing it was fake?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4253 Posts |
I did not buy it. I just saw it and thought there was something "different" so I did my usual thing and researched it. The more I looked into it, the more I was convinced it was not genuine. And then I saw the note at the bottom of Helvetica's Probus page. I wanted to show here that even common coins are now being faked. Probus of all coins! When I was in Croatia last, Probus was probably the most available coins. As I said in another thread just this morning, we all have to be vigilant or we are going to be throwing our money out the window. As far as the dealer, it is a dealer I have bought from in the past without problem. I did notify him, but I have not heard back. If he doesn't acknowledge my email, I will be through dealing with him and I will let everyone here know who it is. However, I'm getting ahead of myself. Hopefully, this dealer did not realize this coin was a fake and will acknowledge that. But even so, I will now be looking quite hard at any other coins he has for sale.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4973 Posts |
interesting...like echizento I would like to know what the point is of faking these low cost coins? Esp. seeded in uncleaned lots that are selling for cheap? just for kicks?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1315 Posts |
Looks like the coin sold for 29.85 after 17 bids, or one just like it.
There is profit in faking common coins.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2100 Posts |
They were being offered to dealers in Europe in lots of 1,000 at Eur 3.00 each claiming to have come from a hoard. These were easily spotted. They then started to treat them to make them appear uncleaned and adding them to uncleaned lots. The buyers of these lots were getting excited at finding high grade silvered ants that took very little cleaning and refused to believe that they were fakes since they had "cleaned them myself". Some ordered more uncleaned coins from the same sources thinking they were on to a good thing only to find that the next batch mainly consisted of these fakes. Production costs must therefore be low enough for them to make a profit at around $1 per coin.
They have been turning up since early-mid 2009.
Martin
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4253 Posts |
The seller contacted me and said that I must be wrong as "he cleaned it" himself (didn't we just hear that?). He says he stands behind all his sales. I have since written him back and provided the links showing this coin to be fake. Now the ball is in his court. I don't think it necessary to identify this seller as he did at least contact me about the coin. But I will be watching.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5155 Posts |
Keep us posted JW....as I always watch for your comments.
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Replies: 21 / Views: 4,007 |
Posted 09/11/2012 11:30 pm
