Hrefn

Innocenti was an Italian automobile manufacturer. One of their products was sports cars. I suspect they had a racing team.

It is just a fact that there are forgeries. Any attempt to pretend it is not a problem is misguided and will not succeed for long. It is impossible to argue with the ancient wisdom, “Honesty is the best policy.” Firms and auction houses which are forthright about forgeries and make serious efforts to eliminate them from the marketplace will not only be behaving ethically. They will burnish their reputations and attract serious collectors. Collectors’ confidence in the company’s offerings will be enhanced if they cultivate a policy of an uncompromising refusal to deal in coins of dubious authenticity. Honesty leads to long term success. Mendacity leads to long term failure.

News flash! Biddr disables Bertolami auction! Received this today: “Dear Sir or Madam, We regret to inform you that we have had to remove Bertolami Fine Arts Auction 309 from our platform due to the significant number of fake coins being presented as authentic in this sale. Despite a previous agreement with the auction house to withdraw any questionable coins — an agreement that allowed them to return to our platform after a two-year exclusion — the volume of confirmed and suspected fakes (exceeding 120 lots, or 20% of the entire auction) and the lack of communication and action to remove these coins have compelled us to take this step. Since you have placed bids in this auction, which have already been submitted to the auction house, we strongly encourage you to review them carefully and contact Bertolami Fine Arts directly if you have any concerns or wish to withdraw them. Although the auction is still accessible via a direct URL, it has been removed from our front page and bidding has been disabled. You will still be able to view the auction and your bids through your user account, but no further bidding is possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your continued trust in our platform. Kind regards, Simon Wieland” Kudos to Biddr!!!

I posted my recent acquisitions in this thread.

If that coin is a fake, it is an extremely good one. The epigraphy looks perfect. There is subtle evidence of a die shift on the reverse, which suggests the coin was struck, not cast. Nor is there any other obvious sign of casting. Could a pressed coin exhibit a die shift like this coin does? I am not sure. The softness at the high points could be legitimate signs of wear. I would say this coin is real, or a pressed copy of a real coin. The style is perfect. The only thing I note is an absence of flow lines in the metal. I certainly would not be confident condemning it based on these photographs.

This is becoming quite a farce. Bertolami responded to my third and latest email! Dear Mr. (Redacted). actually, it is Dr. Redacted, but let’s not dwell on that. Our office will be open from 2 Septemberr and our expertise will give you all info. Best regards BFA Team Two points to Bertolami for finally responding. I guess their entire expert staff is spending the summer vacation kayaking on the Vltava. I am very curious to hear what they have to say, once they return to the office. Rest assured I will share their communication with the Forum.

Lanz is on my no-go list, and Bertolami is joining them. Why patronize a firm which has demonstrated clearly that they will not make a serious effort to avoid selling a fake coin? There are many other firms from which to choose. A lingering doubt about a coin’s authenticity destroys the pleasure of ownership. No reason to buy from a firm which does not understand that.

I have sent Bertolami an email scolding them for continuing to list a well-known fake as real. I also withdrew all my prebids in their auction after closely examining the other Byzantine gold coins, stating I had lost confidence in their expertise and honesty. I suspect they will not be overly concerned with the loss of one occasional customer. Perhaps they should be more concerned with the loss of a good reputation. The short term gain from selling false coins, of even just lying about provenances, can ultimately destroy a firm, as recent history has shown. In the coin business, a reputation for expertise and honesty are indispensable. No one is infallible (prescinding a certain Roman gentleman speaking ex cathedra) and the occasional fake will slip into an auction. How the firm handles the problem is the critical factor. I have long maintained that customers who point out false coins should be rewarded, perhaps with a $50 voucher. After all, the firm has been saved embarrassment, expense, and a possible hit to its reputation. Also, the eagle-eyed customer has rendered a service by improving on the work of the firm’s cataloguer, a person who one presumes is paid for his or her expertise. Beyond this, the confidence such a policy would engender in the firm’s customers would be of great value. Every coin in their catalogue would be vetted not only by their in-house experts, but by many interested amateurs and professionals who viewed their catalogue (since who wouldn’t want $50 off and the associated bragging rights?) Think of it as the cheapest insurance policy ever, outsourced to the universe of numismatic experts. Even a company with a poor reputation from selling fakes in the past could swiftly have that reputation redeemed after initiating this policy.

I have solved this problem completely, and in a simple fashion which anyone can emulate. I don‘t collect Greek and Provincial coins. But, I extend my admiration to those of you who do.😉

No reply from the auction house so far. So here is the listing. Caveat emptor. https://www.biddr.com/auctions/bertolamifinearts/browse?a=4891&l=5920143

It is regrettable, because I have no doubt there are many honest people in Serbia, and in Bulgaria, too. But any coin on eBay coming from those countries needs to be approached with caution. I would recommend starting with the assumption that such coin is a fake, unless a die match can be found on acsearch, or other more reliable source. As to these coins, specifically: I agree with @Theodosius. And I would add that such complete legends on coins of this era would be quite unusual. To have a whole run of them with complete legends really strains credulity. I believe that because the convexities of the obverse and reverse dies were not identical, the authentic coins were usually struck twice. The coins are most affected at the periphery, where the legends are. Here is a beautiful, unusually excellent, coin of Manuel Comnenos, SB-1958. Even this coin lacks all the legend on the left. And the epigraphy on the right is not so great, either. Also, observe the discontinuity of the double beaded circle at the top of the coin. This is clear evidence of the double striking. The die shift here is minimal, which is why the images of Manuel and the Virgin are so good. But close examination of them shows more subtle evidence of the double strike. Mary’s halo has a break in it. There is faint ghosting of each of the figures to the left and the right. Findings like these are typical of the coins of the era. I would love to hear @TheTrachyEnjoyer’s thoughts on this.

Nice coins, by the way.

Production of non-circulating coins is a very old tradition. The USA produced commemorative coinage, mostly half dollars but also some gold coins, for (roughly) much of the first half of the twentieth century. These coins were usually sold at prices above face value in order to raise money for various causes. One of the first produced was the Columbus half dollar struck in 1892 to commemorate the anniversary of the discovery of America. So many of these were made that they lost any premium over face value, and some entered circulation. The majority of commemorative coin types continued to command a premium over face value, and they are very avidly collected today. Earlier than this, various pieforts and presentation pieces have a long history. Certainly these were the non-circulating legal tender (NCLT) of their time. Most of these are coveted collector’s items. The past 60 years have witnessed an explosion in the production of coins aimed at the collector market. Sovereign governments, and private mints which could secure some legal authority from a government, have supersaturated the numismatic marketplace with a tsunami of NCLT coins. The quality ranges from exquisite to shoddy. The historical importance of many is minimal, and the relevance of the commemorated subject to the issuing authority can be slim to absent. The law of supply and demand would suggest the price of these coins, in general, will disappoint collectors who are also investors. But, there will be exceptions! Some of these coins, considered individually, are scarce. If they are also historically important, have a beautiful design, and are issued by a recognized nation which already has a community which collects its coins, there is a chance some individual emissions will do well. If you can buy such coins close to their bullion value, the downside risk is very small. Here are some modern NCLT’s that I believe are worth keeping. for their general appeal, design, historical import, and limited mintage. Except for the last coin, which is handsome, but too many were struck relative to the size of the collector market, in my opinion. I just do not think it has much potential to appreciate beyond its bullion value. So I traded it for another coin I preferred more.

At what number does the casual accumulation of coins, which you do not consider as integral to your main collection, become a subcollection? The two Byzantine hexagrams in the top row are too few to qualify as a subcollection. The four Anglo-Saxon sceats? Despite spending some serious money on relevant reference books, I will only dignify these coins with the status of a subcollection if I manage to afford at least a few more. The Carolingian deniers? Definitely a subcollection. I have the reference books. The coins are not casually, but carefully selected. I am deliberately gaining additional coins, perusing auctions and dealer websites. A non-trivial amount of my collecting budget over the past two years has been spent on these coins. Plus, there are a few more coins which are not included in this group photo. My subcollections began unintentionally, with the acquisition of a coin which was not a carefully considered purchase. That coin stimulated my interest in related coins, the purchase of more coins, and books. And voilá, a subcollection.

@Postvmvs, yes I have. We shall see if they reply.