Dear Agord,
Some years ago I published a paper in
the Celator about
forgeries cut from genuine coins. I am sad to have to say that this is another one. In short: a genuine coin has been re-cut to produce the forgery. In this case, the
obverse legend has been obliterated, and the
reverse ground down and then a new
reverse has been
engraved. And then artificial
weathering, fake
patina etc.
Constantinople RIC 13 is
rare, so I understand that it is sought after and that the forgers copy it. There are only six genuine
RIC 13 known to me (2 in public
collections: Wien and
Milan; 4 in private
hands: Pecunem 18-911, Pecunem 34-1040 and two more that I have bought). I have studied all of these except the Pecunem 34 specimen.
The present forgery was offered to me in January from the Balkans, but as it was an obvious forgery I turned it down. It later ended up with
Victor Clark, and David
Sear has apparently issued a certificate for it. I'm sorry to say that he is not infallible.
I attach a photo of the
reverse where I have indicated traces of the original design. There are many places and many circumstances showing that this is not a genuine
RIC 13, also on the
obverse.
Victor has
had no reason to doubt the authenticity of the specimen, especially as it has been
certified by David
Sear. However, if you don't want to have a forgery in your
collection, I suggest that you turn to
Victor and he will do the right thing.
I will be happy to send you (privately) photos of all the genuine
Constantinople RIC 13, and also my Celator paper showing a similarly produced forgery.
I'm sorry if this has made you disappointed. I'm on a constant crusade against Constantinian
forgeries because they mess up my research.
All the best,
Lars Ramskold
