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 Replies: 10 / Views: 1,510 |
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Valued Member
United States
110 Posts |
Hi guys, stumbled across a coin I am completely unfamiliar with - a 1547 Luneburg Thaler... But like it, kind of, if it appears legit that is. I only have the two pictures + diameter of 41-42mm to go off of, but I can't even venture a guess as I typically collect coins from the 1700s up to early 1900s. My oldest Thalers are a very nice XF+ 1816 Oldenburg 1/3 Thaler + an equally nice 1862 Frankfurt 2 thaler. So I am definitely out of my league. Any insight would be most welcomed. Is there anything I should especially keep an eye out for when dealing with forgeries of older coins (1500s-1600s) - in particular Thalers?   *** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. *** |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
7953 Posts |
Try to compare to examples that have been sold by reputable auction houses. Do not buy any thalers from sellers on ebay whose prices seem to good to be true (you can find many from Russia and Albania in particular). SOme of these are selling, and when the buyer learns they have been duped, they are probably re-selling them. I could only find one example of this type and date on CoinArchives, and yours has enough differences to make me wary. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
581 Posts |
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Valued Member
 United States
110 Posts |
^ Yeah, I am leaning that way too, the porosity and details seem iffy to me (would the coins be cast silver or some other form?)... I will link to the auction site that has this coin plus 5 other thalers/German coins. They all seem suspect to me, so I won't rope my uncle into bidding on them for me in person. I am sure a legit auction company would make someone whole again, if the coins were deemed counterfeit. But I don't want to run the risk or waste my time without a proper risk reward scenario. https://auctionlifeflorida.com/cata...=86&lotID=16 |
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Moderator
 United States
34423 Posts |
Quote:
would the coins be cast silver I am not aware of any that weren't struck, so I think that the answer is no. "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Valued Member
United States
110 Posts |
^ I meant the counterfeits/forgeries, could they have been cast from a mold?
-EDIT- More specifically, if the coins appear fake, how were they counterfeited? If not cast are there other similarly low detail crude methods that are more common?
Edited by MasterKromm
12/09/2019 8:50 pm
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Valued Member
United States
177 Posts |
Far far from an expert but looks like a sand cast to me...
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Moderator
United States
23731 Posts |
Not my area but from what I can tell it's not genuine.
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Moderator
United States
34423 Posts |
Quote:
if the coins appear fake, how were they counterfeited? Well of course the method of manufacture can vary for the counterfeiters, but yes some are cast (especially with a cheaper alloy). More dangerous is when the correct manufacturing method and alloy are used to generate fakes. Your piece looks cast to me. "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7953 Posts |
Not to mention, if the auction house thinks those are all German I would quickly walk away (for what it's worth, the two 1796 Austrian thalers might be genuine, but not worth more than a combined $100 in that grade).
If they can't even figure out the countries these coins came from, it's unlikely they can spot a fake.
Edited by tdziemia
12/10/2019 4:54 pm
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Valued Member
United States
110 Posts |
Thanks tdziemia, Spence, echizento, Sir Derrin, & yellow88.
Hope it was not too much of an imposition, but I always appreciate expert advice.
FWIW, the auction house did return my message with the following response,
"We do our best to describe and feature items (taking clear photos for collectors like you to inspect) and our intention is never to feature counterfeit items. As a coin collector you are almost certain that these are counterfeits please do let me know and I will most likely just pull the lot from the sale until further notice."
So it seems they at least want to do the right thing, thus I informed them that the coins appear to be cast counterfeits.
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Replies: 10 / Views: 1,510 |
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Posted 12/09/2019 8:06 pm
