L. Aemilius Lepidus Paullus denarius

[Pawel K]

Dear colleagues,

Several year ago i've bought a Lucius Aemilius Paullus denarius from 62 BC. It was cheap, bought in quite reputable auction house and i truly forgot about him till last month, when i tried to sell it in the other auction house. I was completely surprised that it was told that this coin is highly suspicious and probably fake.

What is your opinion?

[djmacdo]

Weight?

[Pawel K]

3,82g

[PMah]

Did the 2nd auction house have the coin in hand?  It looks a bit "soapy" but hard to say.  The issue is often off-center with heavier wear on reverse, with poor engraving on reverse, as seen.  It would be odd to cast a fake from such a typically worn original.

[Pawel K]

Yes, they have coins in hand. I will attach edges photos later.

[Pawel K]

Edge photos added.

[DzikiZdeb]

The crack on the edge looks rather suspicious. Does the element located in the place of its possible continuation look relatively easy to remove?

[Pawel K]

The crack on the edge looks rather suspicious. Does the element located in the place of its possible continuation look relatively easy to remove?

No, it's a solid piece of metal.

Another portion of photos.

[DzikiZdeb]

No, it's a solid piece of metal.

Well, it's hard to find any clear argument that this coin is a fake. I am puzzled by something else - after reviewing about 300 of the 700 coins of this type available on acsearch I found three that seem to be die-linked with yours, but only the obverse (all three reverses seem to be struck with the same die, but not identical with yours). Am I right?


https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7892768


https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=4830323


https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6780248

[Pawel K]

Am I right?

Yes

[DzikiZdeb]

Am I right?

Yes

Nevertheless, we are still far from the conclusions. A bit too many surviving coins from this obverse die. Were any of the above three coins used to create a modern fake die, from which yours was later struck?


https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1357957

Here's yours, sold for 60 EUR in 2012. As I understood, you bought it recently from antother seller.


https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=473981

And here's another coin, struck with the same dies as yours and also with a suspiciously fuzzy reverse.

[Pawel K]

Yes, I bought mine coin from WCN in 2019.

The quantity of similar coins and soapy reverse is truly confusing, but i'm still not sure it's a fake. Maybe because i'm not even average in recognising fakes

[DzikiZdeb]

but i still not sure it's a fake.

Me too, but the amount of suspect details is starting to get significant.

The following hypothesis can be made:
1.the first three coins are probably not counterfeit;
2.one of them was used to create a modern obverse die, which was used to struck the next two (there is probably a coin with the reverse used, I did not try to look for it).

A good proof of this would be to find at least one more coin that exactly matches yours.

Could someone confirm this makes sense?