M E D A L. 
as well as thofe of the drapery, are commonly filled up, 
and have not the fharpnefs of the genuine kind. Where 
the letters or figures are faint, the coin is greatly to be 
fufpetted. 
The letters form the great criterion of medals, the 
ancient being very rude, but the modern otherwife ; the 
reafon of which, according to Cellini, is, that the an¬ 
cients engraved all their matrices with the graver or 
burin, while the modern forgers Itrike theirs with a 
punch. 
According to Vico, the falfe patina is green, black, 
ruffet, brown, grey, and iron-colour. The green is made 
from verdigrife, the black is the fmoke of fulphur, the 
grey is made of chalk (teeped in urine, the coin being 
left for fome days in the mixture. The ruffet is next to 
the natural, by reafon of its being a kind of froth which 
the fire forces from ancient coins ; but, when falfe, it Ihines 
too much. To make it, they frequently took the large 
brafs coins of the Ptolemies, which were often corroded, 
and made them red-hot in the fire; put the coins upon 
them, and a fine patina adhered. “ Sometimes (adds 
he) they take an old defaced coin, covered with real 
patina, and damp it anew ; but the patina is then too 
bright in the cavities, and too dull in the protuberances. 
The trial of brafs coins with the tongue is not to be 
defpifed ; for if modern the patina taftes bitter or pun¬ 
gent, while if ancient it is quite taftelefs.” 
Mr. Pinkerton informs us, that all medallions from 
Julius Csefar to Adrian are much to be fufpefted of 
forgery ; the true medals of the firll fourteen emperors 
being exceedingly valuable, and to be found only in the 
cabinets of princes. 
II. The fecond clafs of counterfeit medals contains 
thofe calt from moulds taken from the Paduan forgeries, 
and others done by eminent mailers. Thefe are l’ome- 
times more difficult to be difcovered than the former, 
becaufe in cafting them they can give any degree of 
thicknefs they pleafe ; and, filling the fmall fand-holes 
with mallic, they retouch the letters with a graver, and 
cover the whole with varnilh. The inltrudtions already 
given for the former clafs, however, are alfo ufeful for 
thofe of the fecond, with this addition, that medals of 
this clafs are generally lighter than the genuine, becaufe 
fire rarifies the metal in iome degree, while that which is 
ilruck is rather condenfed by the ftrokes. In gold and 
filver medals there cannot be any deception of this kind; 
becaufe thefe metals admit not of patina, and confe- 
quently the varnilh betrays the impofition. The marks 
of the file on the margin of thofe of the fecond clafs are 
a certain fign of forgery; though thefe -do not always 
indicate the forgery to be of modern date, becaufe the 
Romans often filed the edges of coins to accommodate 
them to the purpofes of ornament, as guineas are fome- 
times put into the bottom of punch-ladles. It is com¬ 
mon to imitate the holes of medals made by time by means 
of aquafortis ; but this deflroys the fides of a coin more 
effectually than if it had been eat into naturally. The 
fraud, however, is not eafily diftinguilhed. 
III. Medals cajl in moulds from an antique .—In this mode 
fome forgers, as Beauvais informs us, have been fo very 
careful, that they would melt a common medal of the 
emperor whom they meant to counterfeit, left the quality 
of the metal Ihould betray them. “ This (fays Mr. Pin¬ 
kerton) has been done in the filver Septimius Severus, 
with the reverfe of a triumphal arch, for which a com¬ 
mon coin of the fame prince has been melted ; and in 
other inliances. Putting metals in the fire or upon hot 
iron to cleanfe them, gives them an appearance of being 
calt; for fome fpots of the metal being fofter than the 
reft will run, which makes this one of the world methods 
of cleaning medals. The directions given for difcover- 
ing the two former deceptions hold good alfo in this. 
IV. Ancient Medals retouched and altered .—This is a clafs 
of counterfeits more difficult to be difcovered than any 
other. “ The art (fays Mr. Pinkerton) exerted in this 
Vol. XIV, No. 1017. 
82<J 
clafs is alloniffiing; and a connoiffeur is the lefs apt to 
fufpefl it, becaufe the coins themfelves are in faft an¬ 
cient. The acute minds of the Italian artifts exerted 
themfelves in this way, when the other forgeries became 
common and known. With graving-tools they alter the 
portraits, the reverfes, and the infcriptions themfelves, 
in a furprifing manner. Of a Claudius Ilruck at Antioch 
they make an Otho; of a Fauftina, a Titiana ; of a Julia 
Severn, a Etidia Clara ; of a Macrinus, a Pefcennins, See. 
Give them a Marcus Aurelius, he (tarts up a Pertinax, 
by thickening the beard a little, and enlarging the riofe. 
In ffiort, wherever there is the lead refemblance in perfons, 
reverfes, or legends, an artift may from a trivial medal 
generate a molt fcarce and valuable one. This fraud is 
diltinguiffiable by the falfe varnilh which fometimes. mafks 
it; but<, above all, by the letters of the legend, vdiich are 
always altered. Though this be fometimes done with 
an artifice almoft miraculous, yet mod commonly the 
characters draggle, are difunited, and not in line.” 
In counterfeits of this kind fometimes the obverfe is 
not touched, but the reverfe made hollow, and filled 
with mallic coloured like the coin, and engraven with 
fuch device and legend as was mod likely to bring a 
great price ; others are only retouched in l'oine minute 
parts, by which, however, the value of the coin is much 
diminilhed. 
V. Medals imprejfed with new devices, or foldered. —In the 
firlt article of this clafs, the reverfes have been totally 
filed off, and new ones impreffed with a die and hammer. 
This is done by putting the face or obverfe, whichever is 
not touched, upon different folds of padeboard ; after¬ 
wards applying the dye, and ftriking it with a hammer. 
The forgery in this clafs is very eafily difcovered, as the 
devices and infcriptions on the counterfeits are known 
not to exift on true medals : as the Pons ^Elius on the 
reverfe of Adrian: the Expeditio Judaica of the fame 
emperor, See. The difference of fabrication in the face 
or reverfe will be difcovered at the firlt glance by any 
perfon of fkill. 
The foldered medals confift of two halves belonging to 
different medals, fawed through the middle and then 
joined with folder. This mode of counterfeiting is com¬ 
mon in filver and brafs coins. “ They will take an An¬ 
toninus, for example, and faw off the reverfe, then folder 
on the obverfe which they have treated in the fame man¬ 
ner. This makes a medal, which, from an unknowing 
purchaler, will bring a hundred times the price of the 
two coins which compofe it. When the deceit is ufed 
in brafs coins, they take care that the metals be of one 
hue; though indeed pretenders in this way fometimes 
folder copper and brafs together, which at once reveals 
the deceit. Medals which have a portrait on each fide, 
and which are generally valuable, are the molt liable to 
a fufpicion of this fraud. To a very nice eye the minute 
ring of folder is always vifible ; and, upon inferting a 
graver, the fabrication falls into halves.” 
In the fame manner reverfes are lometiipes foldered 
to faces not originally belonging to them ; as one men¬ 
tioned by Pere Jobert, of Domitian with an amphitheatre, 
a reverfe of Titus, joined to it. Another art is fome¬ 
times made ufe of in this kind of counterfeits, of which 
there is an inltance of the Temple of Janus upon Nero’s 
medals; where the middle brafs is taken off, and inferted 
in a cavity made in the middle of a large coin of that 
prince. In the coins of the lower empire, however, 
the reverfes of medals are often fo connected with their 
obverfes, that a fufpicion of forgery fometimes occurs 
without any foundation. They are met with moll com¬ 
monly after the time of Gallienus, when fuch a number 
of ufurpers arofe, that it was difficult to obtain an exaft 
portrait of their features ; the coiners had not time, there¬ 
fore, to ltrike a medal for thefe, as they could have done 
for other emperors who reigned longer. Hence, on the 
reverfe of a medal of Marius, who reigned only three 
days, there is pacator. qrbis, which ffiows that at 
10 B that 
