Wow, I Had To Have This One!

You had doubts so you did the right thing and brought them up to the dealers attention. He also did the right thing by taking the coin back. Glad it worked out, sorry you didn't get the coin, though better safe than sorry.

Thanks, particularly to Bob, you probably helped me dodge a bullet.

I never react badly to honesty, if I ever post a dud I want to know about it.

Now for the matter of my Byzantines... 6 weeks and still not received them... I hate to say the seller is not acting as professionally as the one that this coin came from... the only responses I get are from support but the seller has not communicated well (with me or the postal services from what I can tell) Why can nothing in life be straight forwards?

Despite giving me a refund the dealer sent me the coin to look at anyway. In hand the coin looks better than the photos in some respects but worse in others.

What I particularly don't like is marks like this near the edge of a coin (reminiscent of lines left in lost-wax casting process)



Is there any natural way for such lines to appear? None of my other silver Greeks have anything comparable.

Me too, I sent a photo and an email. The dealer said "send it back and I will refund the postage cost...the coin is going in my black cabinet"

It just goes to show even from the best of sources we need to take the time to look and ask questions.

I had seen enough... I have sent it back now.

The dealers images are clear enough, with the coin in hand it looked better in some ways and worse in others. This photo of the line near the edge (that I spotted in the original photo but took the close up of) just reminded me of the marks I used to have to clean off from rings which had been cast when I was an apprentice jeweller.

I didn't take other images, and have just returned from the post office where I sent the coin back.

Had I seen your message I would have taken some more for you, but I think we can learn enough from what is in this thread now.

The sharpness of the lettering on struck originals cannot be imitated by a casting very easily. The limitations are that fine details like lettering is hard to clean up (possible with a dremel or dentist drill and soap stone bits, but time consuming) and silver will only cast into certain sized details (elements smaller than half a millimetre or so are difficult/impossible to cast)

There is no one thing though that says "this is definitely fake" it is just a balance of probability given numerous clues. An uneasy feeling that it isn't right.

It is a good enough copy that if Bob hadn't voiced concerns I might well have added it to my collection none the wiser.