Fake Heraclius solidi and the quality of transfer dies

[byzcoll]

Hi,

in reference to a previous thread on the topic I like to address the problem of fake solidi of Heraclius in conjunction with the use of transfer dies, again. The three fakes shown below are based on the Sear F37 forgery, but the obverse die has been reworked. The top two examples are from acsearch, the third one is from the fake reports.

What can be seen:
1. All three coins display exactly the same "double strike" on the obverse.
2. The different shapes, appearances and the flow lines (particularly well seen on coin # 3) show that the coins are struck.

Conclusion:
The "double strike" must be in the "matrix", but cannot be engraved. The "matrix" must be a die, because the coins are struck. Thus, the coins are made with transfer dies.

What can be seen at high resolution:
Click on the image of the top coin for the high resolution picture. The details of the original engraving are quite well transfered to this copy, just the transitions to the fields are kind of soft.

Conclusion:
The transfer dies produce a quality of fakes which have fooled major auction houses. There is a minor loss of detail by the transfer technique, but even small structures were copied well from the seed. I expect that well-made tranfer dies from seed coins of the highest quality can yield fakes which remain unrecognized for a long time, specifically when the coins are not examined with a microscope.

byzcoll

[Joe Sermarini]

Dangerous.  Byzantine gold needs to be examined very closely these days.  I have turned down all the larger lots of Byzantine gold I have been offered in the last couple years because I suspected they were  seeded with at least some fakes. 

[Hydatius]

I suspect it's because the coins are quite variable in style and quality of strike, are less well studied and published in general in comparison to normal imperial types (e.g. no RIC equivalent), and aren't widely known but are becoming more popular.

Richard

[Obryzum]

aren't widely known but are becoming more popular.

So true.  It is hard to find even low end solidi these days for less than $350.  It wasn't that long ago that you could find them for about $200.

Meanwhile, I think I need to buy a microscope.