Fake Parthians

[Robert_Brenchley]

I should really have spotted these from the dealer's scans, but another collector who's far more expert than me also assued they were genuine. To judge from the dealer's response, I don't think he had any idea they were fake, and he has promised to honour his guarantee, so its not too bad. They appear to have been hubbed from real coins, but they're quite obviously fake once you have them in hand.

Mithridates II, Sellwood 26.1. 19mm, 3.11g.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Unknown King II, Sellwood 30.15. 20mm, 3.05g. I was particularly irritated by this one, as its a rare variant; the poor strike in the centre of the reverse, where the coin is thickest, is a sign that it was hubbed from a genuine example, as this would be really hard to imitate effectively. Its the most convincing of the four, but the junction of the two halves of the mould is clearly visible on the reverse.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Orodes I, Sellwood 31.5. 20mm, 3.28g. The flan flaw is only present on one side, and looks as though it was cut with a saw.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Vologases VI, Sellwood 88.18. 18mm, 3.41g.

[Bluefish]

 Robert, if you have not already done so I will post these to the fakes board. I have never seen this these types of coin before tho... are they greek, and if so, what denomination? Pardon a newbie's ignorance!

 Thanks.

 Peter

[Robert_Brenchley]

Parthians, go to parthia.com for lots of info. They invaded Persia from Central Asia, displaced the Seleucids, and adopted their style of coinage. Over the generations, they moved away from the Greek style of portraiture, and changed to a more stylised Eastern style. These four are drachms. There's little known of their history, but I find it a fascinating coinage.

[featherz]

They for the most part look cast to me from even the scans. Great that you are getting your money back!

[Robert_Brenchley]

They look cast on my scans, but they're better than the dealer's!

[Bluefish]

  All 4 have been added to the Fakes Board. These are the first parthians to be added. Thanks!!  

[esnible]

When documenting fakes it might be worthwhile to start photographing the rims.

For example, here is a composite I made of a fake Parion drachm:

http://www.snible.org/coins/cast/cparion1.jpg

The rim can be captured even using a flatbed scanner.  To make that picture I put the coin between the spines of two National Geographic (=thick) magazines which held the coin in place.  The magazines are yellow/orange, so I covered them with black paper.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Good idea; I hadn't thought of that. The edgrs of my coins were similar to your drachm, with the join showing in places, but the coins were thinner, more the shape of Roman silver..