Fake antiquities

Not only archaeologists and historians, but also various collectors, are interested in items that have come down to us from ancient times. This circumstance has engendered whole clans of scammers engaged in the manufacture and sale of "ancient" treasures, works of art and other fake antiquities. What an ancient object, the more historical value it has. And, accordingly, the price in modern currency as well. Especially the Italian masters are guilty of this: they have been selling fake antiquities for a long time to rich foreign tourists, ready to take away from Italy everything that has something to do with the "Great Rome", up to Colosseum.

The art of such false antiquities always accompanied official monetary relations. We already mentioned this in the article "Numismatics and coins". Let's give another example, now about masters of counterfeit antiquities from Central Asia. In 1927, while excavating near Tashkent, Uzbek archaeologists discovered a whole "enterprise" for the manufacture of counterfeit antiquities - counterfeit money, which functioned at the end of the 14th century. On the shelves of the secret workshop there were preserved samples of coins and instruments, which the medieval master of the criminal genre used. And after about half a century it was possible to make a new discovery: exploring the remains of the ancient site of ancient settlement, scientists stumbled upon a garbage pit in which the treasure was buried - sixteen silver dirhams, issued in the early 11th century in the state of the Karakhanids. When the coins were cleared, it turned out that they were copper and only slightly "powdered" with silver. But historians and archaeologists know that the dynasty that ruled at that time minted dirhams only from pure silver.

Specialists-numismatists came to the conclusion that coins are counterfeit. It remained unclear how they got into the garbage pit. Apparently, the authorities learned about the illegal fishing of the ancient counterfeiter, and he, in order to get rid of the evidence, hid the coins for a time in the garbage pit of his house, hoping that the "auditors" would not look there. So copper-silver counterfeit antiquities lay there for almost a thousand years.

We want it or do not want it, and fake antiquities will continue to produce. After all, they often become the sweet prey of a collector, give an opportunity to proudly talk about this exhibit to friends. And in this there is a positive. How else? Perhaps, this coin was held by Julius Caesar himself! And the producers of fake antiquities give us hope for this.