The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-09-28
FFFIGY OF PRIANI

the Father Joberts OF the future COINS with
the
EFFIGY OF PRIAM
And the city and wooden horse of Troy;
Cicero, with the Triquetra and the legend;
"Trinacra, Proscripto, Verre"; Hannibal
on horseback aiming an arrow at the walls
or Rome and the word "Accipite"; Agrippa
as Neptune driving sea horses. with the Roi
Our eounterfeiters have to be better anti
quarans. They make the inexperienced
collectors poor, but OF silly.
An antique coin. nodded, not struck is a
counterfeit. know that they have found
in certain provinces of France, particularly
in Provence, terra-cotta mods; at Damerv
notably in 1880, 500 nodded silver pieces OF
the Emperors from Philip to Posthumus.
1900 of Posthumus of Plus Antoninus $500
bronze pieces; and that Professor Lenorm-
ant thinks it probable that certain Govern
ments nodded coins Of their predecessors
and passed them for good money; hut the
process of mnlding coins, except in the be-
cummings of Italy, and then only for copper
money, was not an official authoritative pro
cess in any nation of antiquity.
A struck coin sleeps on the finger that
weighs it; nodded, it falls easily. The sur
face is irregular, there are cavities in it un-
der the nagnifying glass, the lettering is
heavy, the impression lacks sharpness. A
modern counterfeit struck, of an antique
coin is too regular, or when Irregular, too
n lie
Instead of the antique method, with cubic,
instead of a conicdie. deficient at the edge,
badly lettered. A deficient or filed edge is
not proof conclusive that a piece is false,
for there are collectors who frame coins and
value the frames before the coins. The
frame is the thing for them, not the coin.
But there can he no installing the lettering.
For nations have their Characteristic writ
ing, like individuals. From the beginning of
silver money among the Romans, 269 years,
B. c., to the end of the republic, roman letters
on coins are thin and long and finished with
dots that appear at no other epoch Of the
Roman Empire. Under Iiberius "a A. d.
they are handsOmer, have dash for a
pedestal. and finish in slight curve. They
gradually decline in elegance, and in the
reign of CaracaiIa, 211 A. D., are heavy.
The Greek COINS, the finest expression OF
ntique art have not had before the be-
ginning of this century their full measure OF
appreciation. Neither the Paduans, Cayino
and BaSsianO. who fiOurtshed in the second
half of the sixteenth century, nor Michael
Derveux of Florence; CarterOn, Holland;
Cogornier, Lyons; Laroche. Grenoble coun-
terfeited Greek coins. They would have
been at too much pains for too little re-
Enumeration. Even when there was breath
of glory for the buccaneers, the pirates, the
expert counterfeiters of antique stones and
coins, Cali in Rome, and the famous
Becker, whose catalogue was compiled in
1896 and 1927 by Sestini and Clouet, avoided
Greek art.
The Paduans did wonders in Roman
counterfeiting. Their Agrippina-obverse
Agrippina, NJ. F. Mat c. Cesaris August.
HEAD OF AGRIPPINA
To the right. Reverse. S. p O. r. Memo
of their bandsomest works. Its faults a.o
in the lettering, too square and fiat Their
Antonio Augusta : reverse, III Claudius.
Caesar. Aug. z. NJ. TRIP. Imp. Sc. A