Drusus Posted March 16, 2010 Report Share Posted March 16, 2010 Recently a guy came to the forgerylist complaining that he bought a coin that had been reconstructed using plastic. Here are the images: Here is what he bought (not cheap mind you but of course the coin is in great shape!!) Here is what he was left with after a soak in acetone Apparently this coin of Geta was given a similar treatment: http://www.numismatikforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=35424 In one soak a very expensive coin turned into a not so expensive coin for the unsuspecting buyer. It seems this is not that terribly rare. Seems easier to do an make it look convincing than to retool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedeadpoint Posted March 16, 2010 Report Share Posted March 16, 2010 I don't follow. Was one real? They both look fake to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drusus Posted March 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2010 They are both real but very damaged, they were re-sculpted with some type of plastic that came off when dipped in acetone. The top coin was bought for a premium price. I guess the guy who bought it suspected something, dipped the coin and the details made from plastic came off. Someone was trying to sell a low end coin for high end money by re-sculpting the details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedeadpoint Posted March 16, 2010 Report Share Posted March 16, 2010 I had no idea people did that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drusus Posted March 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 nor did I. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccg Posted March 17, 2010 Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 Interesting "patch" jobs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arminius Posted May 10, 2010 Report Share Posted May 10, 2010 I think the reconstruction/surgery was a great job, but... If someone sells such a coin he should clearly indicate this and the pricing should be significantly lower than for a coin with complete patinata. The problem is: The online market drift in the direction `sold as seen on the screen´, no returns and no refund. Ancient coins are sold if they ONLY look good. There is a certain market for good looking but tooled coins with extra sharp details. The dealer reputation, trust, experience and contact gets more and more meaningless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syzygy Posted May 10, 2010 Report Share Posted May 10, 2010 Recently a guy came to the forgerylist complaining that he bought a coin that had been reconstructed using plastic. Here are the images: /**/ In one soak a very expensive coin turned into a not so expensive coin for the unsuspecting buyer. It seems this is not that terribly rare. Seems easier to do an make it look convincing than to retool. This is really amazing to me and thanks much for the posting. On the one hand, I am very impressed by the degree of retooling done with the adulterant - that lettering that is presumed to be artificial fits very well to my eyes and some of it is almost entirely 'plastic'. The areas in the second coin where you see the divots after the acetone look somewhat suspicious in the 'before' picture (of course, it's easy to be suspicious when you look at the after picture). Can we completely rule out effects of the acetone? I know acetone *should* not react with copper and this gets tossed around from time to time on the boards, with some swearing that acetone has messed up their copper (nothing like this case though). I have had the experience of acetone mottling the surface luster/toning on a Lincoln before see Evil Acetone Definitely nothing like we see in your pics - but could acetone do a number on patina? Also, can we rule out that the dip was not something else (such as a diluted acid which is typically contained in silver dips)? Looks like a putty job, but I am still curious - does anyone else know more about such matters? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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