Alexius 1 Komnenos ??? Help needed, please?

[Topcat7]

I have this coin that was described to me as Alexius 1 Komnenos, however I am unable to confirm this.

Is that because it is NOT Alexius 1 Komnenos?

 

AE18.2mm., 4.1gm.

Edited April 17 by Topcat7

[Simon]

I am.sorry to say it is a modern forgery, commonly seen on ebay. Most of these forgery are being sold by UK sellers and are being made in Eastern europe.

It is based off an Alexius coin half tetarteron SBCV,-1932, it is not a hard coin to find,just hard to find nicely stuck.  It was originally attributed to an unknown Greek  mint but recently this is being rethought because of the excavation in Thessalonica for the new subway, these coins are being found in the hundreds there. 

OBV Patriarchal cross on two steps.

REV Bust of emperor wearing stemma divitision and jeweled loros and in r. hand holding jeweled scepter and in l. Globus cruciger.Europe.

DOC lists 42 examples with weights ranging from .59gm to 3.22gm and sizes ranging from 13mm to 18mm

 

Edited April 17 by Simon

[Simon]

Here is a lesser known article by an excellent researcher, he is talking about crusader coins but it is the same style for the tetartera.

https://www.academia.edu/39265926/NEW_FACTS_ON_MODERN_FAKE_COINS_OF_THE_CRUSADER_STATES

Currently on ebay, there are 6 under new listing's for tetarteron  that are all fake. The sellers are vintage items, coinhub, vallface.

I don't know if the sellers were duped, but the coins are clearly not right. One is very good that I question if it is fake or not. 

Know the coin or know the seller. 

[mcwyler]

2 hours ago, Simon said:

Here is a lesser known article by an excellent researcher, he is talking about crusader coins but it is the same style for the tetartera.

https://www.academia.edu/39265926/NEW_FACTS_ON_MODERN_FAKE_COINS_OF_THE_CRUSADER_STATES

Currently on ebay, there are 6 under new listing's for tetarteron  that are all fake. The sellers are vintage items, coinhub, vallface.

I don't know if the sellers were duped, but the coins are clearly not right. One is very good that I question if it is fake or not. 

Know the coin or know the seller. 

 

I don't think the sellers were duped. The first and third are proud members of this useful list of fake sellers.-

http://augustuscoins.com/ed/fakesellers.html#U

Edited April 17 by mcwyler
Correction

[catadc]

@Topcat7  It is exactly the same type of fake like the one you posted in this topic. Still do not understand why @Simon gives the benefit of the doubt to the "UK based" ebay sellers who throw these on the market. 

 

[Simon]

1 minute ago, catadc said:

@Topcat7  It is exactly the same type of fake like the one you posted in this topic. Still do not understand why @Simon gives the benefit of the doubt to the "UK based" ebay sellers who throw these on the market.

 

1 hour ago, mcwyler said:

I don't think the sellers were duped. The first and third are proud members of this useful list of fake sellers.-

 

To be honest I don't know these sellers, nor do I follow them, therefore I won't condemn them fully. Just the coins they are offering now.

Last year I saw a fake on one of the lower end dealers on vcoins. All of his other material was good, so I just let him know about the issue with that coin. It came down. 

On the list of fake sellers, I saw one that I have purchased legit coins from, I am not doubting they sold fakes to get on that list but was it malicious or ignorance? 

 

[catadc]

You should scan ebay from time to time. I bet you don't have such a cute face in your collection:

This is for sale as of now: 

[JeandAcre]

Going back years, ebay started out having rafts of fake earlier medieval silver, Anglo-Saxon and so forth.  From the onset, they were all summarily laughable.  Sorry to hear that it's progressed to Byzantine.

[Topcat7]

Yet another one! My foray into the Byzantine world has not been enjoyable. I think that I will leave it there and not try to fill the 'gaps', anymore.

Thank you, everybody.