"Are you saying these have been tested metallurgically at some point and found to contain ancient silver? If that is the case, then that would be compelling evidence in favour of their authenticity. I would agree that melting down authentic coins to make inexpensive fake ones would NOT be economically sound from the perspective of the modern forgers."
I did not say that they were actually metallurgic tested.
But I think that a metallurgic test would be
good.
Such
cheap coins are generally not metallurgic tested, test is too expensive and in no relation to their value.
That is why they will likely have used modern silver if they are actually
fakes, because no nie will ever do a metallurgic test on them because of the costs.
These coins were minted over a very long period of time and the
style and
style quality varies much many artists were involed.
Some authentic ones with pretty crude
style exist, too.
Forgers generally try to imitate the
style and features of the coin issue they try to fake.
So you can be sure that the
style is leant on authentic coins.
Artificial wear is generally not very convincing, these
fakes often have
very fine scratches or hairlines. (put them in a stugg bag/pocket with other
fakes and put them into dryer and they will rub on each other...)
I do not like condemning coins bases on
style and confirming other coins based on
style as authentic.
There have been often enough authenitc coins been condemned because of unusual
style for issue which were actually authentic (at excavations
hoards with die matches were found and the coins were later rehabilitated).
And
fakes with
good style passed and fooled experts.
To condemn on
style alone is error-prone.
This suspected coins do all have another problem, the were all made by the same artist (which is not
good).
I do only care for argument and I do not care for names !
I will always follow the one who has imho the best arguments.
I do not know based on what information Barry P. Murphy has condemned them.
Did he do a die study if yes, with how many authenic examples did he compared them with 10, 1000 or maybe 1000+ ?
Which literature, museum and private
collections were resarched for possibly die matches?
Is he familiar with this issue and does he know all for this emission/issue typical and atypical features?
For example some
ancient coins were only minted at a specific
die axis, so a different
die axis would mean always fake, correct
die axis would mean possibly authentic.
Are all for this emision/issue specific features correct on these
fakes or not?
Is silver ancient or modern?
etc.
"Is there not consensus in the numismatic community on whether coins of the
type posted originally by Barry are fake?"
If you look in
acsearch how many aution houses sold this coins and if you look how many dealers offer and sold this coins I seriously doubt that there is a consensus that they are fake.
If all would agree that they are fake, then they would not sell them!