The Impact of Modern Fakes in the Analysis of Monetary Circulation: a Case Study from Aquileia

This contribution tackles the presence of modern forgeries of Apollonia Pontica coins in the collection of the National Museum of Aquileia. As demonstrated by the die link analysis, these specimens bear close resemblances to the Apollonia Pontica forgeries featured in the famous Black Sea hoard. Furthermore, no evidence is known for finds of genuine coins of this mint in the area of Aquileia, as this coinage was primary conceived for circulation along the western shore of the Black Sea. As a matter of fact, these numismatic fakes were deliberately purchased to meet the demand of the black market of ancient artifacts in Aquileia. After some seizures undertaken to strike down this illicit trade, they became part of the numismatic collection housed in the local National Museum. In this way, these numismatic fakes could alter the picture of the local monetary circulation in ancient times and, therefore, they need to be detected and then isolated within the archaeological collection of coin finds recovered in Aquileia.