Objekt 9770
Reluctant Counterfeiters
Description
False forgers
Frequently collectors and scholars produced excellent copies of rare coins, which later entered the collector’s market as forgeries. Also, curiosities like pseudo-medieval coins produced for misleading treasure hunters using metal detectors were regarded as forgeries.
Object description
1. Frankish Empire and Verona. Re-casts of a portrait denarius of Charlemagne (768–814) and a testone of 1516, produced in the 16th and 17th c.
Silver cast
Inv. 1918.1756. Amerbach Cabinet, 1918.1588. Museum Faesch
2. Vatican State. 5 lira 1870 on which Pope Pius IX has been re-cut into a contemporary politician, after 1870
Silver, struck and engraved
Inv. 1932.325.
3. Lower Austria. Coin die and pseudo-medieval pennies by the “Neunkirchen Forger” produced to dupe treasure hunters, around 1990
Steel, engraved and silvered copper, struck
Inv. 2009.680.1.-2., 2009.681.1.-3
Which Coin is Fake?
[left]
Fake
Pseudo small coin “1 arduo” 1809 from workshop in the Frankfurt area, around 1810
Inv. 2009.682.1.
[right]
Genuine
Basel half-batzen 1809
Inv. 1903.820.