V.IX Faking Ashmore fakes ........
Trevor Ashmore fake of Eadþig 'Flower' Halfpenny. With 'doctored' flan.
This article will show the most common method employed in faking very rare Anglo-Saxon pennies. But hopefully my identification of the flaws in the coinage and the subsequent tricks used to age the coins will prevent collectors wasting money on these coins - unless to purchase them as replicas.
The coin shown above is a Trevor Ashmore reproduction. Ashmore, working in his garden shed, hand cut his own dies and struck his own unmarked copies of Anglo-Saxon and other coinage. Originally from Nottingham, he founded his own company, which eventually failed, selling these coins mainly to American collectors.
Most of Ashmore's coins are reasonably easy to identify. Catalogues have been released listing those that have been recognised, although some have fooled experts, and even been published in widely respected journals. Ashmore did not fake the more common coins, he specialised in rarities .....
The Ashmore fake above [from my collection] is a copy of an exceptionally rare round halfpenny of king Eadþig of England, struck from regional dies. Less than ten of these 'Flower' halfpennies exist as the issue was short-lived. Round halfpennies [as opposed to pennies that were cut in half to provide the denomination] from the Saxon era are very rare indeed, even the standard issues. This regional issue is a Great Rarity. So much so that we know exactly which coin it was copied from. This coin, in the British Museum, is shown below for comparison.
Genuine Eadþig 'Flower' Halfpenny. SCBI 34 - BM 857.
Fakes such as these have usually have tell-tale signs that the coin is not genuine. For example Ashmore does not seem to have been able to cut a near-perfect freehand circle, such as those on genuine coins. His are generally more ovoid in shape and sometimes the ends do not join together [a feature very occasionally seen on the real thing]. Whilst his copying of period style coin legends is usually near accurate, his sizing is not, and his spacing is poor. Also on genuine coins the positioning of the letters follows the diameter of the inner circle exactly, Ashmore could not perfect this - and it is a giveaway. For example note the 'R' in REX, on Ashmores coin it tilts backwards slightly at its 9 o'clock position, on the genuine coin it is perfectly aligned. His lettering is also much thinner than usual, and does not flair into the wedges as it should. It is not executed with the confidence of the original die-sinkers.
The reverse of the coin is rather good. When circles were not involved, Ashmore was in his element. Although one or two warning signals flash up here too. The foliage of the 'flower' on the genuine coin is absolutely symetrical. Ashmore's die is not as perfect. The small semi-circle below the groundline joins the outer leaves of the plant on the real thing, Ashmore's is way out and a little small. The foliage should also flow in perfect arcs from the groundline. The moneyers name, EADþINE [EADWINE] should be evenly spaced beneath the groundline, Ashmore's moneyer legend slopes down and to the right. The major mistake he made here though is that he did not align the two rosettes of pellets. On the tenth century coin they are perfectly aligned.
Fraudsters are known to take Ashmore reproductions and doctor them to make them look old and worn. This is particularly effective if selling through pictoral media such as ebay, or a dealers website. The coin is taken and beaten around the edges with something blunt and heavy, this causes chips and wearing to the flan as if it has been damaged in the ground. Sometimes corrosive chemicals are used on the coin to age it artificially, and manufactured 'patina kits' are also employed for this purpose. Coins are repeatedly heated and cooled and 'rusted' through contact with iron. Some even bury the coins in awful conditions to try to replicate the look of a long buried genuine example. The Ashmore above has been heavily 'doctored.' In pictures, especially slightly blurred ones, the coins can look indistinguishable from the real thing. And then, once purchased the real shock comes ...
Two things cannot be determined from a picture. One is weight, the other is flan thickness. The fake above is almost a millimetre thick, far too thick to be genuine, as these coins were of wafer-thin silver. At 2.0g it is also far too heavy. The genuine Eadþig above weighs 0.6g. It is extremely difficult to replicate correct flan thickness, and thus, as is normal, fakes are almost always heavier than genuine coins. I should also add that the flan diameter measurement is not accurate. It is slightly too big, and coinage of this era was, as a rule, evenly struck on the flan.
I purchased the Ashmore above specifically as a teaching tool. The more that can be done to make people aware of this kind of fraud the better.
If in doubt about the genuiness of a prospective purchase, please ask an expert for advice. Although by no means an expert, I have considerable experience and can be contacted here for any reason.
Images taken from the EMC/SCBI database. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
- Posted by dragonbloodaxe on 11/12/2007.
- dragonbloodaxe's site
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