There has been intermittent debate, and questions from time to time on the
Fakes board, about certain wrong-style
Legionary denarii that have been sold by well known dealers in recent years, thus that appear in hand as struck and ancient, and also wrong-style Legionaries that have been sold by more
notorious eBay sellers in the same period, of very similar
style, and that look probably
cast.
For the record I attach in this and the next post a variety of such pieces that have been sold by well-known coin dealers. I call them "Pigeonaries"
I am not sure whether these are ancient and modern. They may be ancient imitations. Some, especially those sold by
ebay sellers, may be modern and made in odd styles so as to somehow look Dacian or
imitative (which is a great defence, "looks odd?? must be Dacian then"), and others, sold by larger
auction houses, may be ancient.
Part of my reasons is that I've seen some examples (not among those illustrated) that look distinctly worse in hand.
Part of my reasons is that coins in such styles were never seen before about 2010 and were not included in the Phil
Davis sale of Dacian imitations. I'm sure Phil would have found them if they
had existed in older sources.
This belief of mine also extends to the other
Imperatorial types recently offered, and specifically the Pompey Varro which have been sold in
abundance by dealers the world over in the last few years, but once again were not to be seen before about 2010.
However, many well-respected experts disagree with me. So, these are not for the
fakes reports. Furthermore, I have
had a similar piece in my
collection that I certainly thought genuinely ancient (though probably
imitative). I just want to register my view here so as to make
Forum members aware of this phenomenon, when they are considering
buying supposed Dacian imitations of the
Imperatorial periods or other
types of the
Imperatorial period in the wrong styles, such as the Pigeonaries here illustrated. Maybe they are all genuine, maybe they are all
fake, maybe some are genuine and others are
fake. I suspect the latter is true: of those illustrated in this
thread, many may be ancient and some not.
Moderators: I would like this post to remain on the Antony
Legionary Denarii stickie rather than moved to the
Fakes board, given the lack of consensus, and that those experts who think these genuine are not
Forum members, and as all they
types I illustrate are Legionaries.