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Replies: 9 / Views: 1,395 |
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New Member
United Kingdom
9 Posts |
Hiya, Second post :) These are a few coins that I've acquired over the years. I'd love to know if they are authentic and what they are. I assume No. 3 is Athenian?  Thank you very much (Sorry for the poor photos!) Nige. Edited by barnabythebear 02/04/2016 08:02 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4883 Posts |
I'm far from knowledgable about such, but from a general coin collector's perspective, the uniform appearance of these specimens makes me very suspicious. I've also read that in many countries where authentic examples of this sort of material might be recovered, their export is forbidden, so the sale of souvenir replicas is commonplace. If they were purchased in one of those places, I'd factor that into assessing their provenance.
I understand that there're many repuatable dealers of ancient coins in the U.K. - you might do better right there at home than elsewhere.
Colligo ergo sum
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7066 Posts |
I share Lucky Cuss' concerns. Need better pics. The first coin appears to be a Macedonian issue, with diademed Apollo obverse and rider on horseback reverse...perhaps Philip II or Alexander III (sorry, but I don't have time right now to pin it down...writing from work) - but, again, it may well be a tourist fake. Second coin has a Helios obverse and rose reverse...typical of Rhodos issues.
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
I'm sorry to say but they all appear to be fakes. The first coin is supposed to be Philip II, but the style is wrong. The second is supposed to be from Rhodes and the last one is supposed to be from Athens. I would like to see a better picture of the second coin, the detail doesn't look bad on that one. But I still suspect it is also a fake.
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New Member
 United Kingdom
9 Posts |
Hiya all, Thanks for taking the time to reply. Here is a 'better' view of the second coin.  The colour is all wrong but there is more detail. Thanks again. Nige.
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
Sorry just as I thought it's not real.
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New Member
 United Kingdom
9 Posts |
Hiya,
Thanks for looking. What sort of things should I be looking out for in future when buying coins like these?
Thank you,
Nige.
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
There is an old saying about ancients. "Buy the book before the coin". Which still holds true, however now a days there is a lot of useful information available on the web. First I would recommend that you look through the sticky section here tilted Books, Downloads and Websites. There are books and reference material that you can down load for free. When you are ready to buy, by from dealers that are well know for selling genuine ancient coins. I would recommend buying from Vcoins. Here is a link to ancient coins dealers there. https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/an...Default.aspx Ask questions here, we are always will to help.
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New Member
 United Kingdom
9 Posts |
Hiya
Thank you, I'll certainly check out the downloads here and thanks for the link.
Ta,
Nige.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
513 Posts |
You have to be extremely knowledgable to be able to spot a fake. The best thing to do is to buy only from trusted sources. The sources I trust are Vcoins and forvmancientcoins. ebay is just a bad idea for ancient coins until you either know what users on there are trustworthy or know a LOT (more than I do, and more than most coin collectors) about spotting fakes. Edit: Actually I should rephrase. It takes a lot of knowledge to spot real coins, since there are so many different indicators that a coin may be fake, and some of them are subtle. It is good to ask why people think a coin is fake though, since that's how you learn, and I wouldn't want to discourage that at all. For what it's worth I wouldn't have been able to spot these as fakes and I consider myself to be decent knowledgable about ancients, if not so much Greek silver coins.
Edited by chuy1530 02/09/2016 7:04 pm
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Replies: 9 / Views: 1,395 |
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