Tuesday 3 July 2012

The Significance of the "Cabinet W" Fakes


The SAFE coverage of the Weiss affair notes that three coins were examined by coin experts, who considered the items genuine. On further examination under the scanning electron microscope (if the experts had been unanimous - why would you need an SEM? Are we not being told something here?), it was found (how? What features gave it away?) that the coins were modern forgeries. As SAFE says:

News that the Weiss coins are forgeries that leading experts could not detect, may send a shiver through the close-knit fraternity of high-end coin collectors. The questions coin collectors must be asking:
1. Where did these top-quality forgeries come from? How were they made (pressure molded or struck)? How many more examples by the same forger have circulated, and when did they first appear?
2. If the NYDA’s experts were unable to spot the Weiss coins as fake, without the aid of an electron microscope, what hope do dealers, auctioneers, and collectors have when the next undocumented Greek and Roman coin with a six-figure price tag appears on the market? Will this case prompt the industry to agree that verifiable provenances and scientific testing be required for all coins above a certain pre-determined price level? Do collectors deserve no less?
The SEM scan would have been done in a laboratory, should not the release of the report of the lab be released for two reasons? Firstly allow sceptics to confirm that the coins the DA reportedly intends to DESTROY actually are fakes, that no mistake has been made. Secondly to provide comparative material for the study of all coins acquired by collectors and institutions from "Cabinet W" and donated to public collections by Dr Weiss, or supplied from the same sources as provided these coins to "Cabinet W". To my mind destroying the coins is a senseless act of destruction, it is not as if these are forgeries of current US issues.  Hiding the lab report and destroying the primary evidence in my view would be tantamount to being an accessory to the crime. This verdict is not the end of the case, but only the beginning of a whole new one.

 

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