New dies? No, fake dies!

Hard times for forgers now the online databases can help collectors to spot their frauds. You just need some good reference books, an internet connection, some patience, and some time to spend surfing online sales, ebay and auction databases.

For example tonight I was surfing and I saw on acsearch this bronze coin of Syracuse, struck under Pyrrhos…

This coin was auctioned by the British auction house Roma Numismatics Limited on september 2012. The dies are not listed by Calciati or other reliable references about this coinage. So I just compared the type with the many modern dies sold on ebay in recent years, which I collected in a folder of my PC, and…

“Unpublished” bearded Athena currently on auction

The British auction house Roma Numismatics Limited is currently listing this laughable coin…

Akarnania, Stratos: “Not found in the major references”… I wonder why?

The U.S. auction house Gemini LCC listed this coin on January 2013, pointing out it was “not found in the major references“.

In the commentary they even stated: “The coinage of Stratos has not yet been carefully studied. This coin appears to add something new to the record, an issue supplementing the output of Corinthian colonies in Acarnania and Illyria that took part in the oversea grain trade between Sicily and the mother-city Corinth“.

In fact the coin was a fantasy modern fake, combining the Sigma symbol