Modern Fakes in Uncleaned Lots

by Jim Phelps

In December 2003 several sellers of uncleaned coins received large shipments from their suppliers, but noticed something very odd about the coins included. A large percentage of each shipment were actually modern forgeries, one seller saying this made up about 70% of his lot!

The coins are easily spotted by someone with even a small amount of experience by the odd style, but the forger tried to sneak them into the market through uncleaned coins - this is a common way in recent years for new collectors to get involved. A new collector might place this into his collection as a genuine coin. Upon finding out it was fake this could quite likely sour him of collecting and studying ancient coins, and could easily lead many to think the most (if not all) ancient coins were fakes.

The coins were struck on very regular planchets, having nice square edges instead of the more ragged and rounded or tapered edges. Some have an irregular shape, perhaps trying to simulate clipping (clipping of a bronze?) The coins all have an identical style, even though the originals would have spanned almost 400 years. They are all poorly struck, leaving large "flat" areas of no detail, and are often off center. The flat areas sometimes seem to show scratches, yet these scratches are raised rather than etched into the coin. They all arrived with identical light encrustation. They were easily cleaned of the surface dirt with a light dry brushing, indicating that they had been re-dirtied. Very seldom does a coin rest in actual dirt for 1500+ years and then give up the encrustation easily. The "patina" is falsely applied, and is easily removed with water and a soft brass brush.

The US resellers said that when they purchased these groups of "uncleaned" coins, they were told that the coins had been excavated in Bulgaria. This is typical of genuine coins too, the bulk of which currently come from Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary.

This page was inspired by Bob Bischoff's Modern Forgeries Appearing in Uncleaned Lots page, and he is also to thank for those pictures with purple backgrounds. He first provided the warning to the various email lists and quickly started putting warning pictures on the Internet. I purchased some of these for my own education and noticed some additional types, plus I thought having an additional page warning people would be a good thing. Caveat Emptor!

I'm honored that an article I'd written on this topic was published in the March 2004 issue of The Celator.

Septimius Severus
	Nikopolis provincial - 1 Herakles leaning on club		Nikopolis provincial - 2 Standing figure
	Nikopolis provincial - 3 Eagle (Chicken!) standing
Licinius II
	Iovi Conservatori Jupiter standing facing
Constantine I		Crispus
	Ornate helmeted bust VIRTVS EXERCIT Standard flanked by 2 seated captives		Small bust type PROVIDENTIAE CAESS Jupiter standing left Note: Constantine II reverse type
City Commemoratives
	VRBS ROMA Helmeted bust Wolf & twins		CONSTANTINOPOLIS Helmeted bust Victory on prow
House of Constantine
	Constantine & sons GLORIA EXERCITVS Two soldiers flanking 1 standard		Constantine II GLORIA EXERCITVS Two soldiers flanking Labarum (note Chi-Rho)
	Constantine II FEL TEMP REPARATIO Phoenix on pyre Note: This type only struck by Constans & Constantius II		Constans GLORIA ROMANORVM Emperor with labarum dragging captive
	Constans FEL TEMP REPARATIO Phoenix on pyre		Constans FEL TEMP REPARATIO Soldier spearing fallen horseman
	Constantius II VICTORIAE DD AVGG Q NN Two victories facing each other with wreaths		Constantius II FEL TEMP REPARATIO Soldier spearing fallen horseman
Jovian
	VOT V MVLT X Legend in wreath
Valens		Valentinian II
	SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE Victory walking left holding baton (should be wreath, not baton)		CONCORDIA AVGG Roma enthroned facing Note: Only 2 G's in reverse legend, should be 3.
Justinian
	5-Nummi Chi-Rho		8-Nummi aHp reverse
	10-Nummi ANNO "I" XXII		20-Nummi "K" with cross reverse
Justin II
	5-Nummi Monogram

1. Septimius Severus Provincial, Herakles & club
2. Septimius Severus Provincial, standing figure
3. Septimius Severus Provincial, Eagle (looks like a chicken!)
4. Licinius II - IOVI CONSERVATORI, Jupiter facing
5. Constantine I - VIRTVS EXERCITI, standard & 2 captives
6. Crispus - PROVIDENTIAE CAESS, small bust, Jupiter left (C'tine II type)
7. Constantinopolis - victory on prow
8. Urbs Roma - Wolf & twins
9. Constantine Era - GLORIA EXERCITVS, 2 soldiers/1 standard
10. Constantine Era - GLORIA EXERCITVS, 2 soldiers/1 labarum
11. Constantine II - FEL TEMP REPARATIO, phoenix on pyre (Constans/CsII type)
12. Constans - FEL TEMP REPARATIO, phoenix on pyre
13. Constans - GLORIA ROMANORVM, emperor dragging captive
14. Constans - FEL TEMP REPARATIO, soldier spearing fallen horseman
15. Constantius II - FEL TEMP REPARATIO, soldier spearing fallen horseman
16. Constantius II - VICTORIAE DD AVGG Q NN, 2 victories viz-a-viz
17. Jovian - VOT V MVLT X in wreath
18. Valens - SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE, Victory walking left
19. Valentinian II - CONCORDIA AVGG (no 3rd "G"), Roma enthroned
20. Justinian (527-565) - "Chi-Rho" 5-Nummi (pentanummium)
21. Justinian - "H" 8-Nummi with bust
22. Justinian - "I" 10-Nummi (decanummium) with ANNO XXII reverse
23. Justinian - "K" 20-nummi reverse
24. Justin II (565-578) - "E" 5-Nummi (pentanummium) w/monogram