Maximinus Thrax - Cast fake?

[Nikola K]

Run into this one today. It looks like it has a casting pearl and holes on the obverse. Overall appearance looks cast to me.

What do you think?

I do not own the coin, nor plan on bidding on it, so unfortunately no weight/size information.

[Germania Magna]

Anyway, the coin has quite many flow lines which normally come up when coins are struck or pressed; I would say it is hard to imitate them with a cast. Unfortunately, skilled modern fakers are able to reproduce them.

At the moment I can just say that I would feel somewhat uncomfortable when buying it, because the profile does not seem to be very deep, esp. on the obverse.

Where do you see cast pits? Are you sure they are?

Weight information would be helpful to exclude a pressed coin, which I would expect to be slightly underweight. Pressing could explain for the quite smooth surface, but this is more a hypothesis than a proven fact, because the moneyer might just have struck less forcefully.

Maybe there are more experienced „fake detectors“ or „fake experts“  among the forum members, „inside-knowledge“ or expertise on forgery could help on a lot, for sure.

[Nikola K]

I'm not 100% sure that these are casting pits, it just has many holes on the obverse. The pearl on the obverse is the reason enough to condemn the coin as a cast fake in my opinion.

This coin is from the same seller as Trajan. I may be wrong regarding this and we should not rush into condemning the coin if there is a plausible doubt.

I'm not sure where do the red lines on the reverse are coming from, I would be grateful if anyone could shed some light

For the flow lines, they can be copied from host during the casting process. If this is a cast fake it is of good quality.

There are great examples of flow lines on cast coins here - http://www.tesorillo.com/fakes/10/10.htm,  or english version - http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tesorillo.com%2Ffakes%2Findice.htm

The surface looks like the cast examples from the above site.

[Germania Magna]

Okay, on those sharper pics - at least at 9 o`clock obverse - I can see now some tiny holes resulting from casting bubbles, too.

A good reason not to spend on it the money we have worked so hard for, I think, but that is my very personal opinion, of course.

[djmacdo]

I would certainly be suspicious enough of the coin to avoid it.

[Nikola K]

Combined with Trajan from the same seller that also looks cast, there are too many red flags...

If we cannot state with certainty that this is a fake, then this is an excellent example of the coin to avoid 

Thanks for the replies