India Forgeries
| Category | Coin Type | Current Situation | Origin of Forgeries / Proof of Forgeries |
| example: China | Chinese cast cash coins | Hopeless - fakes and originals indistinguishable | |
| Ancient - Punch-marked Coins | |||
| Magadha PMC | fake coin | Pankaj Tandon | |
| unusual, archaic PMC | fake coin |
I find this a very suspect piece! The punches are all deeply pressed into
the metal, nearly without any overlapping which is very unusual. The style of
the
design elements is 'wrong', too simple execution, flat and lifeless. The
same
design is punched several times and apart from the 'sun' only
tree-depictions
are used which is unknown for any series. - Wilfried Pieper
There is no discussion. A forgery. On PMC's the tree symbol is only shown once and twice at max., and never some many times as this. Further you are right to point out the spacing of these punches. Too much care has been taken and the cuts are too clean.. - Paul Murphy |
|
| Ancient - Indo-greek | Indo-Greeks have been widely counterfeited. The reason was pretty obvious, the breathtaking numismatic specimen of these rulers were so much sought after by both western and oriental collectors that they were sold many times of their metal value, sometimes almost 1000 times! I have encountered maximum fakes of this series, mostly made in subcontinent itself. I had an opportunity to study (if I can use that term) some of these fakes made by a counterfeiter. They were made by simple casting method (using genuine coin as template), and later polished. I might say, they were not difficult to distinguish. But I am sure, some of the specimen are created with perfection, and that is where one need to be careful. If one is buying coins from reputed dealer or collector, then there is nothing to worry about. Most of those have studied their inventory and chances of they selling fakes conciously is almost zero. - Nupam Mahajan | ||
| Heliocles | Utmanzai Forgery | I had
bought this coin at auction, subsequently realized that it was an Utmanzai
forgery, and returned it to the auction house (who, to their credit, took
it back without any difficulty). Pankaj Tandon
See excellent discussion about Utmanzai forgeries by Mr. Bill Spengler |
|
| Diodotus I | Afzal Raza | ||
| Diototus I fantasy | Govind Prabhu | ||
| Indo-Scythian | |||
| Indo-Scythian fake tetradrachm | Govind Prabhu, fake came from Pak dealer as a stray in a good lot. | ||
| Kushan | |||
| Kanishka II, Siva-Bull (on eBay) | Pankaj Tandon | ||
| Central Asian Gold Bracteates | |||
| central asian bracteates | not determined as a fake? see discussion by Lutz Ilisch, Wilfried Pieper | ||
| central asian bracteates | Obvious fakes | gold bracteates have been offered for sale which very obviously were fakes. I have seen two identical pieces which tried to imitate the gold bracteate with the imitative portrait of Heraclius with his heir Heraclius Constantine (Raspopova,fig.7). - Wilfried Pieper (also see discussion above) | |
| Sultanates | |||
| Mhd bin Tughluq, 1/2 tanka | Fake | courtesy Zubair Khan 1/2 Tanka of Delhi Sultan Muhammad bin Tighlaq-NM,ND (Al-Sayyed Al-Shaheed type). | |
| Mughal | Mughal rarities, mainly in silver, especially fractional rupees and nisar coins. These are pressure-cast or die-struck and are VERY deceptive. They have been surfacing in the market since the mid-1980s; some have even reached major auction firms (where nearly all were caught and rejected). - Steve Album | ||
| Large Mughal Coins - Example: Shah Jahan 200 Re | Fakes, except pedigrees? | see discussion; Shah Jahan coin scan courtesy Nupam Mahajan | |
|
Mughal Square Rupees - |
Fakes, with copper core visible | I am sending you scans of the two obvious fakes. I have been told that there are "millions" of Akbar's square coins circulating in India that are fake. - Manish Singh | |
| Azam Shah, 1/2 Rupee | Fake | courtesy Zubair Khan (original coin, KM 330.1) | |
| Princely States | Many scarcer state issues, especially of the period 1850s and later, were forged, partly for the international, partly for the domestic Indian market. One of the first to turn up, back in the 1960s, was the 1, 2-1/2 and 5 kori silver from Nawanagar. There have been many since, some in silver, some in gold, even some in copper. So far it seems only the scarce to rare pieces that have been forged. - Steve Album | ||
| Assam Coins | Govind Prabhu, sold at Mysore by street sellers. | ||
| Bikaner | Shailendra Bhandare | ||
| Kutch Coins - cast | Occasional? | ||
| Mewar Rupee | lower rupee fake? | top rupee 10.8 gms, bottom rupee 11 gms | |
| Nawanagar Coins - cast - 1, 2 1/2, 5 koris | Widespread? | ||
| Indo-Portuguese | |||
| Goa, on old Maratha re | courtesy Krishnanand Khambadkone | ||
| Pardao 1800 | courtesy Girish Vira | ||
| Pardao 1803 | courtesy Girish Vira | ||
| Goa 1827 | courtesy Girish Vira | ||
| Goa 1840 | courtesy Girish Vira | ||
| South India | |||
| Ancient Lead | Chutus | 23.3 gms, 31 mm diameter | courtesy Wilfried Pieper. "This is a cast fake of the Chutukulananda series (for genuine pieces of this type compare Mitchiner, ..Southern India, part 1, no.26ff). The grey-blue sandy patina of this piece is only superficially adherent and can easily be brushed away." |
| Ancient Lead | Elephant Maharathi - Fake 1 | courtesy Govind Prabhu, die-identical to MKA-1211 | |
| Ancient Lead | Elephant Maharathi - Fake 2 | 25.6gm, 34mm (upper coin), 20.4gm (lower coin) | Govind Prabhu (lower coin), Wilfried Pieper (upper coin) die-identical fakes. Per Wilfried, "My piece has a very different grey-blue patina which cannot be brushed away." |
| Ancient Lead | Elephant Maharathi - Fake 3 | 10.5gm | Govind Prabhu This piece was sold at Chandrapur, claiming that it is of Ikshvaku issue. It has an elephant on obverse, and the reverse has a neatly railed tree like that of Chutus lead. |
| Ancient Lead | Crude Bull - Lead Fake | 27.8gms | same class as Mitchiner's South India - Karnataka/Andhra, #1222 |
| Silaharas | Silahara Fanam | courtesy Girish Vira | |
| Fanams | Ganga Fanams | Govind Prabhu (all identical dies) | |
| Mysore Sultans | Fantasy? Holy Cow! | Govind Prabhu (marketed in the name of Hyder Ali, rev. probably has mint name such as Bellary) | |
| Mysore Sultans | Mysore Fakes | 20.1gm, 1.5gm, 0.7gm | courtesy Govind Prabhu - Tipu double rupee, 1/8 rupee, 1/16 rupee |
| Gold Fanams (contemporary forgeries, modern forgeries) | Hopeless? | These have been forged for decades, partly for distribution through promoters and telemarkers in North American an Europe, advertised as "the world's smallest gold coin" (NOT true, India and Nurnberg in Germany have smaller coins). Many are good gold, but some are just gold-washed base metal. Many tens of thousands were distributed around the US by a Florida dealer (now deceased) in the 1970s and 1980s. The fakes were probably made to order in India for western telemarketers. - Steve Album | |
| Toragal - Gadyana (obv, rev) attributed to Barma Bhupala, a feudatory chief ruling c. 1150 AD at Torgal, Karnataka. | "Superb Forgery" |
Genuine coins are rare and would command a good price in Western markets, thanks to the very artistic execution of the coin. The
obverse bears a running warrior and the reverse reads 'Sri Nigalankamalla Dandinagou' in Hale-Kannada script.
This is a superb forgery. Estimated number of pieces made = 20.
see discussion for more details. |
|
| Fanams | Mysore Wodeyar Fanam | Govind Prabhu | |
| Pagodas | Three-Swamy Pagoda | 2.1 gms | courtesy Govind Prabhu |
| Fanams | Fantasy "Fanam" | coin courtesy R. Hari. Obverse is illegible lines while reverse tries to imitate the alphabet 'He' as seen on Mysore fanams and pagodas - Shailendra Bhandare | |
| Fanams | Fantasy "Fanam" - 2 | courtesy Girish Vira | |
Sri Lanka - comments by Kavan Ratnatunga, unless otherwise mentioned
| Category | Coin Type | Current Situation | Origin of Forgeries |
| Ancient | Joe Cribb, the Curator of Coins from South Asia in the British Museum London in an E_mail to me in 2001 July, commented "The whole question of forgeries is very problematic. Normally we would compare objects offered for an opinion with our own collection, but most of our examples post-date the reference you are quoting. We have quite a good collection of Sri Lankan coins, drawn from the collections of Jacks, Bidell, Biddulph, Rhys Davies, Zoe Bell, Elliot and others. If the collectors at that time were taken in then it is difficult to have a clear starting point for picking forgeries out." | ||
| Lankesvaras | ? | 1907 John Still's papers in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Ceylon Branch, Vol 19 #58 161-216. On page 164 he puts a footnote to the word "genuine" I quote " How rare genuine specimens are I am inclined to think very few people thoroughly recognize. Gold "Lankesvaras" and "Vijaya Bahus' are turned out wholesale in Kandy now, and are so skillfully done that most of them are duly absorbed into collections. The improved manufacture of late is marked" | |
| Vijayabahus | ? | ||
| Kahavanus | ? | ||
| Lakshmi Plaques | ? | ||
| Dutch | |||
| Bonk bar - Colombo VOC 4 3/4 Stuiver | Widespread? | One of the most commonly Forged coins in Lanka is the 1785 Dutch 4 3/4 bars. | |
| 2 and 1 Stuiver dumps | |||
| Portuguese | |||
| "x63x" Tanga | obvious fake | see Modern Fakes of Lankan Coins | |
| "xx4x" Tanga | obvious fake | ||
| grid Tanga | |||
| British | |||
| 1/12 Rix Dollar | |||
