A Collection of Becker Restrikes

Sale: Triton X, Lot: 1481. Estimate $10000.  Closing Date: Monday, 8 January 2007.  Sold For $13000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BECKER COUNTERFEITS. A collection of lead restrikes. Struck sometime after 1830. This collection includes most of the known dies of Becker’s work, with a few duplicates. The pieces missing, listed according to Hill’s corpus, are his nos. 6, 92, 112, 128 in the Greek (out of 134 types), and 140, 149, 177, 199, 238, 242, 246, 261, 273 in Roman (out of 140 types). For several of these the dies did not survive, and no restrikes are known. In the early medieval section (47 types) 289 and 292 are lacking, both of which are merely different die pairings of Visigothic tremisses. In Hill’s section on the later medieval types and medals (322-361), the count is complicated by the fact that several of the dies did not survive, and it is even questionable whether many of examples listed are Becker’s work. This collection has Hill 322-325, 331, 332, 333, 335, 336, 337, 342, 343, 345, 346, 347, 352 and the medal for Carl, Prince of Isenburg, 359, which most like represents the bulk of Becker’s production in that area. Also, the die pairs of 18 and 20, Gela and Messana, have been switched, a fact that Hill makes note of. Another curious feature involves the Roman types 150 and 155. These are erotic spintriae, with obverses of Tiberius and Agrippina, and brothel scenes on the reverse. According to the mores of the time, Hill did not illustrate these. The two pieces in this collection were struck with the erotic reverse dies, but they were subsequently erased, leaving only a trace of the image. The pieces in the collection are generally As Struck, with only a few showing a slight powdery deterioration of the metal, and light abrasions on a few others. LOT SOLD AS IS, NO RETURNS. 329 coins in lot.

Carl Wilhelm Becker (1772-1830) was one of the most prolific and accomplished counterfeiters of the 19th century. As early as 1806 he was engaged in the practice of manufacturing false coins and other antiquities, apparently as a adjunct to a trade in genuine antiquities. His market was the wealthy princes of Europe, who filled their cabinets of curiosities with Becker’s work. Although Becker was periodically accused of forgery, he defended himself by claiming his productions were “instructive” in nature, and never sold with the intent to deceive. Notes found in his diary after his death suggest this was not quite true. Becker’s death in April 1830 left his family with little money and a quantity of forged coin dies. From these dies, sets of coins were struck in a lead-tin alloy (actually a poor quality pewter) and sold to collectors and institutions. At some point Becker’s family sold the dies to the Saalfeld Museum, from whence they finally were given to the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum in Berlin in 1911. The present set was struck at some time in the later 19th century, and represents the majority of Becker’s dies that had survived intact. An important and rare study collection of the work of this famous forger.