Hi Din X,
I enjoy learning from your posts on this Board.
For those of us less knowledgeable can you please share why 3 and 4 are obvious fakes?
It might be the quality of the photos but I could not see any of the obvious signs of a cast fake. Were it not for your post and pointing out that they match coin 1&2 exactly (which must prove that they are copies of 1&2), they would not have seemed suspect to me.
Thanks,
Peter
They are casting twins, the more individual characteristics 2
ancient coins share the lower the chance that they are authentic till it is impossible that they are authentic (mathematical probability)!!
They are identical except that the
fakes (casting twins) have artificial
patina, lower
weight (due to volume size and
weight shrinkage of the melted metal in the casting mould when cooling down), the softer details on the
cast fakes/twins, casting defects and pearls and round holes from the air bubbles escaping.
I have circled such a CRICULAR/ROUND hole that is 100% from a air bubble (picure 1 this post)
Small round/circular pits into the coin´s surface or small bumps rising from it are caused by air bubbles created during casting process.
If
pitting or
porosity is caused by corrosion, then the pits are sharper at their edges, weider at their openings and less round than pits caused by casting.
As written above they are casting twins, they share the same
planchet flan shape, same
die axis and centering and wear. 4 individual characteristics are exactly the same = impossible that the twins from picture 3+4 from my last post are authentic.
To the wear on
obverse, the first two letters ZE of ΖΕΥΣ are missing on the host due to corrosion and are so missing on the casting twins, too. And on the
reverse of host the Ο of ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΩΝ is damaged/incompleted due to corrosion which was transferred to the
cast twins.
I think that I can see casting defects and pearls on the twins, too.
There is a clear circular/round holes from air bubble on these
cast fakes/twins.
One great think about
ancient coins is that they are unique!
What makes every ancient coin unique?
0. Ok, first of all you have the planchets, although they were casted in
stone or sand moulds (connected with channels for better fillling) they do often look a little
bit or sometimes really different.
1. The differences due to striking makes every ancient coin unique!This
ancient coins were minted by humans so there is the human factor.
A.)The humans often did not care of the
die axis so the
die axis of many issues/emissions can vary much!
B.) The humans did not care about the exact position of the
planchet between the dies so many uncentered or bad centered
ancient coins exist and
very good centered examples are very
rare of some emissions. We need more coins and we need them yesterday. Producing coins was a mass production and they did not have time to take care of such things like centering etc.
C.) The factor striking/hammering, the striker did not always hit the dies with the same power and at the same position.
What can happen:
1.Individual edge or
planchet cracks can appear one some of them
2.die shift/slippage
3.flat struck areas
4. double struck areas
5.
soft strikeD.) The dies used to make coins suffer due to die wear and die flaws and die cracks, flow lines etc. after some usage.
I guess everyone knows that coins struck from the same dies can look pretty different:
If you compare coins struck with these dies when they were fresh without die flaws/cracks and and
sharp details and no flow lines
with examples that were struck from the same pair of dies but in a much later die state which shows die wear in combination with die flaws/cracks, flow lines etc.
2. Differences due to wear or environment make every ancient coin uniqueA.) I
hope I do not have to explain why the wear is individual on every coin!
Some coins were pretty long in circulation some not!
It makes a difference with what coins the coin was rubbing on each other in the bag/pocket.
The realtion rubbing in pocket to rubbing fingers when paying with the
money.
B.)
Test cuts or bankers marks
C.) Scratches /contact marks when the coins were rubbing on each other or from cleaning or diggers
D.) Environment can damage silver and bronze coins (corrosion/lamination)
So and in which environment protected or not protected (burried or lost) will decide how much corrosion and what kind of
patina or
toning they will have.
Here is a
standard text how to detect
cast fakes not from me and not perfect but ok and in much better English than mine and so better understandable
I. Presence or remains of a seam where the mold halves fitted together
II. Remnants of a casting sprue/channel where the molten metal was poured into the mold
III. Edge filing to hide the seam or sprue ( Surfaces can also be filed/cleaned)
IV. Soft mushy appearance (
soapy) poorly formed details and letters that melt into the
fieldV. Surface voids , bubbles, extra surface metal from the poured metal
VI. Lack of flow lines/strike
VII. Lack of edge cracks or contain shallow dull cracks (most won’t travel from
side to
side)
VIII. Wrong
weight (low or high) in relation to known genuine examples
VIIII. Wrong size, shape or thickness.
Cast coins can often be found slightly smaller in
diameter due to the shrinkage during the casting process
X. casting defects, knots (pearls)
There are many more Sicilian
cast fakes out there (I know more), should we make a
thread and collect them?
Best regards
Daniel