Genie out of the bottle

[Dwarf]

Just two or three years ago vast quantities of primarily denarii of Marcus Antonius from a supposed Bulgarian workshop were sold on ebay - with Lanz taking the lead. He did not declare the coins as forgeries at the time. The revenue must have been many tenths of thousands of Euros. Some coins sold for four-figures even on ebay!

And as expected they are now coming back on the market, sold by leading auction houses.

 

https://auctions.cngcoins.com/lots/view/4-A8QA2R/the-triumvirs-mark-antony-autumn-32-spring-31-bc-ar-denarius-175mm-372-g-12h-legionary-type-patrae-mint-vf

https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=6936&lot=451

Regards
Klaus

who needs to emphasize that this discovery is taken from the German forum, the original post by user "Amentia" who specializes in forgeries of ancient coins. His work cannot be thanked enough!
Here the post with all photos

https://www.numismatikforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11495&p=586242#p586237

 

 

Edited June 17, 2023 by Dwarf
photo missing and bad typo

[John Conduitt]

Thank you. The toning is quite strange so it's surprising CNG didn't look more carefully.

[Deinomenid]

I really wish we had more of this type of warning over here.

 

[DonnaML]

I assume that CNG has been notified? Hopefully they'll withdraw it.

I've only ever tried to buy one legionary denarius, in an FSR auction a couple of years ago. Someone on CT informed me that it was a counterfeit, and FSR promptly refunded my payment. I've been too wary to try again, no matter who's the dealer..

[Dwarf]

For everyone interested in news on forgeries:

Here two links to the Greek and Roman thread in the German forum.
Thanks to online translation there should be no language barrier

Roman forgeries
https://www.numismatikforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11495

Greek forgeries
https://www.numismatikforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=53721

 

On 6/18/2023 at 12:52 AM, DonnaML said:

I assume that CNG has been notified? Hopefully they'll withdraw it.

I stopped doing this due to no-reactions or curious reactions.
I suppose that auction houses check the social chanals. I did - and now is just fun

Regards
Klaus

[Limes]

Thanks! Do you know its only LEG III? Or other legionary numbers as well? 

[Dwarf]

The forgeries are all published either in the German forum and/or forumancientcoins as well as a Polish forum

There is one die each for every legion or cohors, paired with various galley-dies

There were massive sales on ebay and part of the market is thoroughly spoiled

[DonnaML]

I see that CNG has withdrawn the lot. So either someone did notify them, or they saw this thread and/or the one in the German forum.