George Floyd, the Minnesota man who died last week during a botched arrest, was been accused by some reporters as being wanted for the forgery of a $20 bill.

"Forgery" would mean he made it himself. He was accused of passing a forgery, knowingly or unknowingly. Most people don't even look at their change, they just spend it at the next place.

According to August 2019 article, the U.S. Secret Service is working with [Minnesota] retailers to stop the flow of counterfeit money coming into the Twin Cities. If cashiers, who work with money all day long, need education to spot fake notes why should anyone expect that a regular citizen would recognize it? I have the skills to detect counterfeit currency, but since the pandemic I have been touching the bills I receive as little as possible. https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2019/08/13/trying-to-be-very-aware-twin-cities-retailers-on-lookout-for-counterfeit-cash/

Here is a January story on $900,000 of counterfeit US currency seized by Customs and Border Patrol in Minnsota. https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/counterfeit-bills-seized-at-minnesota-border-international-falls-china/89-920a8623-b78c-4d52-a735-6eb913ffd98d

Kharosthi coin inscription, Unicode

The coin:

Indo-Greek, Menander I (165-135 BC), drachm 2.34g 16mm

The obverse Greek inscription: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ (Basileos Soteros Menandrou; of King Menander, the Savior)

The reverse Kharosthi inscription: 𐨨𐨂𐨱𐨪𐨗𐨯 𐨟𐨟𐨪𐨯 𐨨𐨅​𐨣𐨪𐨯

The reverse inscription usually appears in coin catalogs as Maharajasa tratarasa Menamdrasa; “The Savior King Menander”. The Kharosthi might appear in a table at the end. It's real text here. (You may need a font to see it.) You can cut and paste it to other documents.

One of my hobbies is trying to put coin inscriptions into computer format. Hopefully I came close. Step one was glancing at the Unicode Kharoṣṭhī proposal, especially the table at the end.

This is what I came up with:

Ma-u-ha-ra-ja-sa 𐨨𐨂𐨱𐨪𐨗𐨯 𐨨𐨂𐨱𐨪𐨗𐨯
ta-ta-ra-sa 𐨟𐨟𐨪𐨯 𐨟𐨟𐨪𐨯
Ma-e-na-d-ra-sa 𐨨𐨅​𐨣𐨪𐨯 (using a zero-width space to help position; using ra instead of the compound dr) 𐨨𐨅​𐨣𐨪𐨯

Deep dive into Ex-Numis provenance search

A Gift for Polydektes blog is excited to announce that Dr. Jonas Emmanuel Flueck will be presenting a detailed look at the ancient coin provenance searching software Ex-Numis via Zoom later this month.

I blogged about this in in 2016.

The presentation will be Saturday May 30th 1pm EDT. To attend please RSVP Ed Snible. This presentation is hosted by the Bronx Coin Club and the Ancient Numismatic Society of Washington DC.

Dr. Jonas Emmanuel Flueck created a computer system that uses digital image recognition to match coin images to an extensive database of sales catalogs. Five years ago he founded Ex-Numis, a provenance rediscovery service for ancient coin collectors and dealers.

Dr. Flueck will tell us about the importance of provenance for both legal and scholarly reasons, his technology and database of almost one million ancient coins, and what he has learned about provenance in today’s ancient coin market.

Dr. Jonas Emmanuel Flueck is the executive director of the auction house “Lugdunum GmbH” (Switzerland); a former treasurer at the IAPN; the general secretary of the Association of Swiss Professional Numismatists; and the founder of Ex-Numis.

Numismatic titles in archive.org's National Emergency Library

On March 24, 2020 archive.org released for unlimited borrowing the 1.4 million book titles they call the National Emergency Library.

They believe the global pandemic justifies their action. (They give their legal and moral justification here.)

The National Emergency Library is not just medical books. It is everything they have. For the duration of the emergency you can download all kinds of amazing things. Here is a list of their numismatic holdings by decade. It includes some very rare auction catalogs and club journals.

I encourage everyone looking for an at-home project to consider finishing your own numismatic works and prepare them for publication. Stay home. Use this library for research during the pandemic.

• 52 titles 2020
• 2398 titles 2010s
• 2140 titles 2000s
• 1678 titles 1990s
• 1911 titles 1980s
• 1607 titles 1970s
• 1148 titles 1960s
• 789 titles 1950s
• 958 titles 1940s
• 407 titles 1930s
• 313 titles 1920s

Older CNG catalogs

The auction house Classical Numismatic Group has an excellent web site with a good search engine that can be used to study over 300,000 coins and related objects that have appeared in their sales.

The searchable database begins with sale 60 (22 May 2002).

CNG sold many important coins before their 60th sale. Some of their old catalogs are for sale at CNG's own catalog site. They can also sometimes be found in book auctions. A brief index of the focus of each catalog can be found on Warren Esty's site.

Many people don't know that catalogs for sales 1-56 have been uploaded as searchable PDF files and are freely downloadable. I have created a simple list of direct links to the catalogs.

1. CNA I
2. CNA II
3. CNA III
4. CNA IV
5. CNA V
6. CNA VI
7. CNA VII
8. CNA VIII
9. CNA IX
10. CNA X
11. CNA XI
12. CNA XII
13. CNA XIII
14. CNA XIV
15. CNA XV
16. CNA XVI
17. CNA XVII
18. CNA XVIII
19. CNA XIX
20. CNA XX
21. CNA XXI
22. CNG XXII
23. CNG XXIII
24. CNG XXIV
25. CNG XXV
26. CNG XXVI
27. CNG XXVII
28. CNG XXVIII
29. CNG XXIX
30. CNG XXX
31. CNG XXXI
32. CNG XXXII
33. CNG XXXIII
34. CNG XXXIV
35. CNG 35
36. CNG 36
37. CNG 37
38. CNG 38
39. CNG 39
40. CNG 40
41. CNG 41
42. CNG 41
43. CNG 43 September 24, 1997
44. 44 was Triton I. CNG Triton I
45. CNG 45 March 18, 1998
46. CNG 46
47. CNG 47 September 16, 1998
48. 48 was Triton II. CNG Triton II
49. CNG 49 March 17, 1999
50. CNG 50
51. CNG 51 September 15, 1999
52. 52 was Triton III. CNG Triton III
53. CNG 53 March 15, 2000
54. CNG 54
55. CNG 55
56. 56 was Triton IV. CNG Triton IV part 1 and CNG Triton IV part 2

Wearing down a replica to make it appear genuine

The 19th century forger Becker discovered he could make his product seem genuine by applying artificial wear.

It seems some modern forgers have relearned his trick. Antiquanova.com sells nice replica Neapolis staters for 45 euro in fine silver and 6 euro in tin.

A UK-based eBay seller has the following coin listed with 6 days remaining. Six bidders have worked it up to £26.00.

NFC chips coming to slabs

CoinWeek reported on December 27 that PCGS will partner with HID Global to begin embedding high security Near Field Communication (NFC) chip technology in slabs starting in early 2020. There will be apps for NFC-enabled smartphones to verify the slabs are authentic, and to display the information on the slab. Typically NFC readers need to be 4cm or closer to read the chips. It may be possible to read the chips from a few feet away using a giant circular antenna.