Constans II Sear 1053 / 1056

[byzantiumcoins]

Dear Forum members,
does anyone of you have fotos of either Sear 1053 or the corresponding half follis Sear 1056
Any fotos or links to fotos are very much appreciated, thank you.

Byzantiumcoins

[joma-tk]

Sear 1053 (two coins)

[joma-tk]

and the second (CNG 179, Lot 254)

[byzantiumcoins]

Thank you very much.
These are the two modern fakes sold on eBay and CNG, more of these have come from Syria recently.
They are the reason why I try to research these issues.Ê

Kind regards
Byzantiumcoins

[joma-tk]

Fakes?
I generally trust CNG and I am really surprised by your comment!
How did they miss it? The coin at their auction was sold  for $478.
The other coin from e-bay (Bassem) was sold for $366 ( I was also a bidder having offered something around $260
if I recall well).
Can you give us some reasoning  on how you came to this conclusion?

[byzantiumcoins]

Fakes?
I generally trust CNG and I am really surprised by your comment!

I generally don«t trust anybody and I am not surprised by anything any moreÊ :-))

No, let«s be serious, when I first saw this coin on eBay I immediately had a bad feeling, it looked so "modern".
I did some investigation and found out that nobody has ever seen this coin in this century.
It had been published by Sabatier in 1862 as the line drawing you can now see in Sear«s book.
The one in MIB looks completely different, so I asked Prof. Hahn in Vienna and he also immediately
confirmed my suspicion and told me he had seen several of these fakes very recently, all coming from "Greater Syria"

Only a couple of days after the first one sold on eBay a second one showed up in a CNG Electronic auction and
it seemed to come from the same "dies" of course.
I told them that in my opinion it is a fake but they preferred to ignore my message ...
maybe they have just another opinion ...

I am 100% sure it is a fake but if anyone wants to waste his money on fantasy products, go ahead.
Byzantiumcoins

[byzantiumcoins]

Dear Forum members,
does anyone of you have fotos of either Sear 1053 or the corresponding half follis Sear 1056
Any fotos or links to fotos are very much appreciated, thank you.

Byzantiumcoins

So again my question, if anybody has fotos of half follis of this type ( Sear 1056 )
would you please share your fotos ?

Thanks.

[Orthodoxcoins]

1056

[byzantiumcoins]

Thank you for these two.

Here is the first ( and only until now ) genuine Sear 1053, it was in the famous collection of Nadia Kapamadji ( N.K. )
published by Serge Boutin in 1983 as no. 399

byzantiumcoins

[petzlaff]

It's very hard to form an opinion just on 3 pix.
I agree with Wolfgang, the first 1053 to be a fake - it's the same bad feeling, Wolfgang told about.
hmmm - the 2nd one looks like the fake, but there are some differences within the dies (or whatever  they used for production. The module looks good - but - for Carthagian coins it's unusual to see a symmetric order with obverse and reverse in relation together. The last 1053 is very distinctive regarding the nearly straight CRTG mintmark sign. I believe that this one is genuine. In my opinion the 2nd one from CNG is very well discussible. Harlan J. Berk shows a drawing of 1053 which is completely different of those pieces. He depicts the right hand "O" right of the globus cruciger instead above it. Does anybody know, what source Berk used for the drawing? The difference is hard enough to be not ignored.

[byzantiumcoins]

Both "products"  have obivously been made from the same "dies"
So how can one be a fake and the other one not ??

Byzantiumcoins

[petzlaff]

The "O"s above globus cruciger are definitely not identical as well as the diameter of the globe itself. Maybe my eyes work wrong, but I studied both coin-pix several hours to get an opinion.

 

[byzantiumcoins]

and another one:

[joma-tk]

One more

[byzantiumcoins]

Thank you ! So we have the fotos of four of them already but I am sure we will see a few more during the next weeks ...
Where did this one appear ?
Byzantiumcoins

[joma-tk]

Where did this one appear ?
Byzantiumcoins

[LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]
Thomas

[byzantiumcoins]

Thanks.
I have sent an email to [REMOVED BY ADMIN] and will let you know about their reaction.
Regards
Byzantiumcoins

[Obryzum]

I did some investigation and found out that nobody has ever seen this coin in this century.
It had been published by Sabatier in 1862 as the line drawing you can now see in Sear«s book.  The one in MIB looks completely different, so I asked Prof. Hahn in Vienna and he also immediately confirmed my suspicion and told me he had seen several of these fakes very recently, all coming from "Greater Syria"

Sear lists 6 references for 1053:
DO 137
BMC
Tolstoi 73 (listed as Heraclius)
Ratto
BN p. 355
MIB 191

You mentioned that the MIB looks like a different coin, but I am curious about the other references.

[byzantiumcoins]

Sear lists 6 references for 1053:
BN p. 355
MIB 191
DO 137
BMC
Tolstoi 73 (listed as Heraclius)
Ratto
You mentioned that the MIB looks like a different coin, but I am curious about the other references.

What looks like 6 references is in fact one real coin that is quite different from our "coin" :
MIB 191 = DOC 134 and this is the only real one known.

The line drawing in Sear 1053 is taken from Sabatier ( published in 1862 !! ), but nobody is alive to tell us he has ever seen that coin.
BN only mentions Sabatier but of course has no own coin, this is why Sear only writes "BN page 355"
BMC is quoted as -- and of course that means: NOT in BMCÊ Ê
Ratto is also quoted as -- and again that means: NOT in Ratto
Tolstoj too only mentions and pictures the Sabatier line drawing, no coin in his collection.

So the very lovely fake published here is produced to look like the Sabatier phantom coinÊ
so in a way it isn«t even a fake coin but a fake phantom  :-))

Kind regards
Byzantiumcoins

[joma-tk]

Thanks.
I have sent an email to NAC and will let you know about their reaction.
Regards
Byzantiumcoins

Dear Byzantium coins
I saw that the a.m. coin was sold for CHF 1000 (two times the initial estimate).
Obviously they were not convinced by your mail.
Did they reply to it and if yes did they insist that their coin is genuine?
Thomas

[byzantiumcoins]

They replied with a standard email saying they are going to check the coin but obviously they never did.
With all the fotos we have now it is plain to see for a 10 year old child that this thing is a fake, but some of the experts in the big coinÊcompanies
don«t seem to be able ( or willing ) to see.
A ( fake ) coin sold means profit, a coin withdrawn means only work and no profit, seems to be that easy.
Byzantiumcoins

[Nassif]

Hi Byzantiumcoins;
I highly appreciate the excellent Job you did...Very recommended Topic.
Regards.
Nassif

[joma-tk]

No comments
tk

[Obryzum]

I just saw the ebay listing where you found this new addition. 

I have to admit that before seeing this latest listing, I still had some doubts.  The first picture looks very suspicious, but the other ones with the intentional damage look a lot more sophisticated.  Obviously a die match, but might at least one be a real coin???  I would think that someone with this level of sophistication would put his talents to better use than making a fake seal for $99.

I suggest that one of us report this over on the fake discussion board and also file a fake report.  I will do that if nobody else wants to, but I cannot take credit for spotting this one!

1 = CNG 179, Lot 254
2 = eBay
3 = ?
4 = NAC 46, Lot 758
5 = eBay Nov 2008

[joma-tk]

One more fake is offered these days on e-bay.
The seller here has an honest behaviour since he gives a warning on the authenticity of his "coin"

tk
PS It is a lovely souvenir though...