Lovely Antoninus Pius sestertius with Faustina I obverse as reverse

[Charles S]

continued from: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=97840.0

This turned out to be a compound coin, made with the purpose to fool collectors.  The coin was made by sacrificing two authentic sestertii, removing  the reverses and joining the remaining obverses together.  The rim was smoothed and covered with some dark substance to hide the joint.  

As Curtis Clay noted from the start, the coin was unlikely to be authentic as, according to Beckmann's recent study, the legend DIVA AVGVSTA FAVSTINA was probably no longer current when the Antoninus sestertius dated TR P XV was issued.  For anyone interested, the Martin Beckmann paper can be found here: http://www.academia.edu/874791/_The_Coinage_of_Diva_Faustina_Proceedings_of_the_INC_Conference_Glasgow_2009 .

Below photo's from top to bottom:
- the fraudulous Antoninus Pius obverse compared to an authentic sestertius from the same obverse die, issued ca. AD 151/152
- the fraudulous Diva Faustina obverse compared to a (smoothed) authentic sestertius from the same obverse die, issued ca. 140-145
- the rim of the fraudulous coin at a spot where the joint is visible.

[Joe Sermarini]

Interesting.  Fake coin report please.

[Charles S]

Interesting.  Fake coin report please.

Thank you.  The fake coin report has been made.

[Joe Sermarini]

Thanks.

[Chut]

This coins was originally sold in a small and provincial French auction, with other ancient coins, maybe 5 months ago. Sold for something like 700 or 800€. Then I have found it in the auction of a Belgian dealer.

I am quite sure that I have already seen another very similar sestertius. With the same kind of Antoninus and Faustina busts, with 2 busts, one of each side. This sestertius was in the "hell" of the Cabinet des Medailles, in Paris, with many other ancient fakes. It was well done, exactly like yours, and hard to detect with only a picture. But the edge was not good, like yours...

Be careful, because it's also exist with Hadrian and Sabina.

[Charles S]

Be careful, because it's also exist with Hadrian and Sabina.

Thanks for the warning.  I had no intention buying such a Hadrian coin, but I'll keep an eye open anyway.  Maybe it will provide an extra record in the fakes gallery !

[curtislclay]

There are genuine asses of Hadrian with portrait of Sabina on reverse.

I'm not aware of any such sestertii; none listed by Cohen, none in the Ryan collection which was very rich in bronze coins of Hadrian. If any turn up, however, I would expect them to be false!

[Chut]

I am sure that it was a fake sestertius, not an as.

[antoninus1]

The fake sestertius in the Belgian auction was sold for 1900 Euros plus surcharge.

[Chut]

This coins was originally sold in a small and provincial French auction, with other ancient coins, maybe 5 months ago. Sold for something like 700 or 800€. Then I have found it in the auction of a Belgian dealer.

[Charles S]

The fake sestertius in the Belgian auction was sold for 1900 Euros plus surcharge.

In fact there was no sale in the end, because it was annulled when the fraud became apparent .   

[antoninus1]

Ah, thank you for the information.

I am not so happy with that as I was also interested in this coin but refrained from bidding, mainly because of monetary reasons and partly because I once bought a similar sestertius that turned out to be a well cast fake.
When I saw that it had sold I thought "o.k., that coin was genuine".

[Charles S]

... because I once bought a similar sestertius that turned out to be a well cast fake.
When I saw that it had sold I thought "o.k., that coin was genuine".

In fact both sides of the coins were genuine, not a cast fake.  That's what fooled the Belgian auction house who did examine the coin but did not look at the rim.  Only the rim of the coin showed that the two halves were put together from different coins, besides the fact that these, as was pointed out by Curtis Clay, were probably struck in different years.

[Cliff]

Also the others RIC 1073 specimen that are available online seems cast fakes to me.

One has been on sell by ArtemideAste (unsold):

http://www.deamoneta.com/auctions/view/189/348


And the other is in Glasgow, at the Hunterian collection:

http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch/DetailedResults.fwx?collection=all&SearchTerm=27086&mdaCode=GLAHM


Both without SC.

I think that all this production of sestertius with Antoninus and Faustina portrait is a fantasy production made to create a rarity for collectors.
If no authentic specimen exists, RIC 1073 should be removed from the RIC list in the future update.