Seleukos I tetradrachm forgery in Elsen Auction 152

[Kaleun96]

Usually I wouldn't post here about a forgery at an auction house as I prefer to give them time to withdraw the lot themselves. But given the auction is tomorrow, it's after business hours, and I haven't heard back from my email sent this afternoon, I thought best to post a warning here just in case. The current bid is also at 500 euro and Elsen really should know better given how common this fake is.

The top coin is the coin from Elsen, the bottom is a known example of an IBSCC condemned forgery from forgerynetwork.

top: https://elsen.bidinside.com/en/lot/15467/royaume-seleucide-sleucos-ier-nicator-/

bottom: http://www.forgerynetwork.com/asset.aspx?id=IR6wzRLJeq4=

 

There's more examples to be found on forgerynetwork, such as the ones below, and you can even find the obverse die paired with an Alexander III Arados reverse.

http://forgerynetwork.com/asset.aspx?id=l5Tiq/ZWXMc=

http://forgerynetwork.com/asset.aspx?id=XY4XQVRZnAI=

http://forgerynetwork.com/asset.aspx?id=Ptf9FPZ6mN0=

http://forgerynetwork.com/asset.aspx?id=37anmOoOU/0=

http://forgerynetwork.com/asset.aspx?id=Vz~x~pk2iegGI=

http://forgerynetwork.com/asset.aspx?id=XWumFPjITd8=

[Celator]

The bottom coin was sold at CNG. I wonder how they concluded these are from modern dies?

[zadie]

11 minutes ago, Celator said:

The bottom coin was sold at CNG. I wonder how they concluded these are from modern dies?

This is a forgery that has been sold my most every major firm at some point. We're all human, forgeries slip in sometimes. IBSCC used to publish bulletins meant to aid auction houses and dealers to detect fakes. This one in particular was published way back in 1980.

[Kaleun96]

Elsen replied to my email and withdrew the coin before the auction started this morning 🙂