Claudius dupondius fake

[maridvnvm]

I recently saw a Claudius dupondius come for sale on the market and recognised it immediately as a fake. Here is the coin in question, which was described by the seller as a Brilliant Uncirculated "trial strike" with a low weight. The coin was being sold for Eur 3850.

I recognised the dies from which this coin had been made. Some investigation showed that the coin above had previously (April 2024) been sold through a German auction house in an uncleaned state.

The opening coin was the result of cleaning this example. I have sseen many other example of these dies including a freshly struck example.

This is a published fake (published by  Dr. Ilya Prokopov and was found to trace back to the Bulgarian engraver "Lipanoff". During the investigations they even found the dies from which the modern fakes were created.

I thought it worthwhile illustrating the efforts that fakers make in trying to decieve.

Regards,

Martin

[leop]

Claudius seems to be E.T.