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Forgeries based on the 1973 Sirmium gold hoard. 1.

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romeman:
Forgeries based on the 1973 Sirmium gold hoard

During excavations in 1973 in Sremska Mitrovica (Sirmium, today in Serbia, then in Yugoslavia), a hoard of 33 gold coins and medallions was found and taken to the Srem Museum. In 1975, the hoard was published by Miloje Vasic and Vladislav Popovic (Un Trésor de Monnaies d’Or de Sirmium. Mélanges de l’Ecole francaise de Rome. Antiquité. 1975, vol, 87, no. 1).

When I visited the Museum of Srem in 2015, copies of the entire hoard were exhibited. These copies are cast, not struck, and presumably used in the exhibition so that the valuable originals can be kept safe.

However, in spite of being excavated by archaeologists and kept in a museum, the hoard became available to forgers. It is now clear that forgers, presumably the Bulgarian infamous Lipanoff brothers, produced transfer dies of probably every coin and multiple in the hoard (the Lipanoff brothers are implicated because among their dies sold on eBay are several Sirmium hoard transfer dies).

To my knowledge, this copying by forgers of an entire hoard is unprecedented. Numerous forgeries produced by the Sirmium hoard transfer dies have been sold by anyone from reputable auction houses to eBay sellers.

Many of the dies produced by the Lipanoff brothers were sold on eBay (in 2015?) and are still around. Others were reportedly sold to the USA. Several are damaged today but some may still be used to produce more forgeries. And as is often the case, the forgeries themselves are used to make new forgeries.

In another thread on FORVM, some of these dies were kindly posted by Din X. It is my hope that more of the dies will be posted. My intention is to compile a list of the known forgeries based on the Sirmium hoad, and the more dies that can be included the better. I will then present the data at the Warszaw Congress. And then there will be a publication.

It may be noted that none of the Sirmium hoard transfer dies are listed in Ilya Propokov’s 1916 book: “LIPANOFF STUDIO: Catalog of all registered coin types”.

Any help is appreciated. The better the data, the more complete the publication.

I here post the three plates from the Vasic & Popovic 1975 paper, showing the hoard.

/Lars Ramskold

Lech Stępniewski:
Many thanks for posting those plates. We have the Internet and such things should be at hand. Info is the best weapon against forgers.

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