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Examples of "doctored" and fake coins offered for sale
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1. COINS "IMPROVED" BY TOOLING
.The four following pictures are showing a spectacular example of a coin heavily tooled (Herod eight prutot, die R72). On the first tooling (2nd picture) the letters added from 8:00 to 11:00 are very fancy and different than the norm (composite picture at right). After my protestation, the dealer retried it from Ebay before the end of the sale. But eight month later (Jan 29, 2007) the coin was back on Ebay after he removed the fancy letters previously added! (3rd picture). He retried it again before the end of the sale. But on Feb 25 2007, the coin was back again on Ebay, for the 3rd time!
.Another example:
....Two last examples:
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2. COINS "IMPROVED" BY PAINTING
..All the coins "improved" by painting are not as ugly as the two examples shown, but the phenomenon is relatively frequent, not only on Ebay:
On the same subject, read: "Comments on Tooling, Smoothing and Numismatic Conservation" by D. Hendin (The Celator, July 2006)
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3. EVEN THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS COMPANIES CAN MAKE MISTAKES!
..During my researches, I have found several fakes, tooled or painted coins that have been sold by prestigious numismatic companies. Three examples are shown hereafter. Fortunately, this phenomenon is not frequent, and it definitely does not question the integrity and professionalism of these companies:
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Hereafter is an attribution error by an authenticating, grading and encapsulating company:
