Wish that all Fake Coin Reports would tell why the coin is fake

[Jochen]

Hi!

The Fake Report is an invaluable database to prevent us of making bad experiences with ancient coins. But I think, if it is allowed to say so, it has a big disadvantage: You never read why a special coin is fake! Sometimes a coin in this database looks real for me but it is not. But why? I don't know!
Is there the possibility to add this information to the coins? I think then this Fake Report would be top!

Best regards,
Jochen

[phead]

I agree. I look through the reports and admit that many of them would fool me. I't would be nice to know what  gives a particular coin away as a fake.

[Bluefish]

 Hi Jochen!

 I think where possible, a lot of the entries have a partial reason given. For example:

 1) Many coins are reproductions or copies, and usually that is mentioned in the description.

 2) When possible, if I pull a coin from our Fakes thread, I will put down "Identified by Forvm member(s) as fake". If Curtis Clay or another authority stated it as such, that's been good enough for me. A more detailed description can be found in the usual post.

3) Any coin marked as sold by a member of the Toronto Group is self-explanitory, as all they sell are fake coins.

 As for the rest, it is sometimes very difficult to give an exacting description in each entry, such as is done in the tutorial sections, such as the examples of cast fakes, tooling, artificial patina, etc.  Also, speaking strictly for myself, I do not have the expertise to do so, unfortunately.

 Probably not a satisfactory answer to your inquiry, but it's all I have.  

[Joe Sermarini]

I want to have as complete an explanation as possible in the reports.  Including how the coin can be identified as fake.  All of us can submit reports, so it is up to all of us to make them as complete as possible.  Sometimes we may forget to put the reason because it is so obvious to us.   We should remember that it might not be so obvious to everyone.  

Unfortunately for many of the coins we only know they are fake because we know the seller is a fake peddler.  For some Toronto group coins you cannot tell the coin is fake from the photo but we know they are fake.  I have seen these coins in-hand and in-hand they do have all the signs of casting (though subtle).

There are also times when someone may identify a fake but not say how they know because the do not want to inform the forger of the give-away.  I know this is frustrating.  I too wish I knew everything that David Sear, Curtis Clay, Barry Murphy, Dr. Prokopov and all the other experts know.  But sometimes it just has to be this way.