Lot withdrawn from Goldberg

SmEagle1795

The upcoming Goldberg auction had a lot I was interested in, a Trajan aureus, but they just pulled it yesterday as someone brought it to their attention that it wasn't genuine.

It certainly fooled me. I've included the pictures here in case anyone is curious. I suppose I don't feel that bad as they spent the time cataloging it and sounded enthusiastic in their descriptions, but it was surprising to see it pulled this late (the auction is on Tuesday), and I for one am impressed at the quality of it:

bronzemat

You can see flowlines and everything. It would fool me too. Crazy...

EVillageProwler

Has been concluded that it's not genuine, or for now just strongly speculative?

What are the supposed tells?

EVP

SmEagle1795

It was lot 4143, now just listed as withdrawn. I called them and they said that they were just told it was not genuine. Not sure from whom or why, but it definitely strikes me as strange. It weighed 7.4g which is in line with what it should weigh. Lot viewing is going on now so I imagine it's passed through several hands who may have rendered an opinion.

I love this variety, and it hasn't come up for sale in the last several years, so I was looking forward to it, ideally to pair with an aureus of Trajan's Forum. I seem to have a bad track record of liking pieces which end up getting pulled - I was getting geared up to bid heavily on a Mysia Lampsakos Zeus Stater which was a featured coin at Heritage last year and they pulled that one as well. I think the point to take away from this is that you shouldn't show me images of any coins you'd like to sell as they'll instantly become counterfeit

Pokermandude

Seems like a case of better safe than sorry to me. Looks fine to me, but if someone seriously questions the authenticity it wouldn't be prudent for an auction house to go on with the sale unless they were 100% sure it was authentic.