Friday, July 06, 2012

Coin collector busted

silver tetradrachms
A surgeon from Rhode Island--who had ties to RISD and Harvard--pleaded guilty to attempting to sell what he believed to be three silver tetradrachms looted from Sicily. He was secretly recorded saying, "I know this is a fresh coin. This was dug up a few years ago." The coins have since been examined and determined to be "exquisite, extraordinary forgeries, but forgeries nonetheless."
[Seattle Times; more background at Chasing Aphrodite]

Photo by flickr user Cåsbr; used under CC BY 2.0 license.