Thousands of ancient(?) coins seized in Turkey

APPREHENDED: Suspected smugglers of ancient coins nabbed. Suspects in western Kutahya province allegedly attempted to sell 5,000 Roman- and Byzantine-era coins (Anadolu Agency/Yeni Ṣafek). Noted for completeness. I have been following stories of the seizing of potentially interesting smuggled artifacts by the Turkish authorities. So far all of these have turned out to be of dubious authenticity or else genuine, but of recent vintage.

These coins could be ancient. They could also be forgeries or they could be genuine, but relatively recent. The photo in the article is uninformative. We may never know.

On balance, it hardly seems worthwhile to fake so many coins. Forgers would concentrate on faking a few valuable-seeming ones. So my assumption is that at least most of these coins are genuine, but (for whatever reason) of little market value.

This story is also covered by the Daily Sabah with a few more details.

Background here and many links. Cross-file under Numismatics.

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