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 Replies: 8 / Views: 1,453 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1120 Posts |
My first Vandal coin and am super excited. I improvised on the attribution, as I found only one similar example. Any comments or additional information about the coin would be great. King Hilderic Vandal Kingdom (523-530) AE3 14mm 1.1g, HILD - REX Pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust facing right. Reverse: Cross surrounded by wreath.  Short History - very short: The Vandals were a Germanic tribe that migrated to Roman Hispania in 409. On their travels, they made sure to do enough pillaging and looting to have their name synonymous with the word that signifies the wanton destruction of property - "vandalism". In any case, after sensing a weakened Roman Empire, they eventually made their way to the North Africa. Indeed, Rome was in no position to dislodge the fierce tribe and granted them the African territory they were squatting on. Unsurprisingly, they wanted more and eventually took Roman Carthage in 439 A.D. and making it the capital of the Kingdom of the Vandals, They stubbornly become a "thorn" in Rome's side for the better part of a century before Justinian I along with one of Rome's greatest generals Belisarius regained the lost territory in 534 A.D. |
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
Very interesting coin, I would love to find one of these. Congrats
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Pillar of the Community
United States
900 Posts |
Sorry, but I am sure that is a modern fake. Lots of stuff like this coming out of Bulgeria.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1120 Posts |
Quote:
Sorry, but I am sure that is a modern fake. I wouldn't doubt it. I don't know much about the coinage and what the "style" should be. Most fakes I see are in silver. However, The flip read "Hideric" so I didn't expect much. In any case here is the pic of the edge, which looks convincing anyway.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
900 Posts |
the edge offers no clues as to it being a fake as it is not cast. It is struck from clumsily made dies. Below is a similar fake type from Eraric, though no coins are known from him.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1120 Posts |
Victor, thanks for your help. I'm going to keep it as I hardly paid anything for the coin. I probably wouldn't get my hands on an authentic one anyway. As a rule, I never buy anything from Eastern Europe. In fact, I try to just deal with US based dealers/sellers. I mainly collect Roman Imperial Coinage and have gotten fairly good at spotting fakes in that area, but I'm still learning. Anything outside of RIC I'm a fish out of water.
Edited by travelcoin
05/23/2020 3:33 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
Good thing you didn't pay too much for it! There has been a surge of these modern fakes of extremely rare late/post Roman AE coinage, and sadly they aren't just being peddled by known fake sellers on ebay - Emporium Hamburg has been selling them by the score for at least a couple years now, and sadly they are being consigned to otherwise trustworthy auction houses that trust the Hamburg provenance. There was a thread on here a little while ago where I expressed concern about a similarly rare coin (Zenonis) and sure enough, all of the details washed right off the coin with an acetone bath. Some of these are pretty convincing, but any late bronze coin with extremely fine engraving is probably fake. For example, this is the only one I have that I am reasonably certain is actually Hilderic  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1120 Posts |
Well this is why is why we post. Everyone should share and learn. Like I said earlier, I've see a lot of obvious fakes in silver so this is new to me.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3433 Posts |
Have you tried the acetone bath ?
Our recent 'impostor' disintegrated in the bath
While the style of these fakes are somewhat lacking the appearance of the fabric is certainly convincing !
The "metal" looks ancient
But is it only an epoxy resin ?
I would be curious to see how it reacts to various solvents
Of course this may destroy it
But we seem to have a serious problem here
With these finding their way into reputable dealers inventory
How long before we cannot trust anything we don't find in situ ?
This worries me greatly
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Replies: 8 / Views: 1,453 |
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Posted 05/23/2020 10:32 am
