Recognising modern copies

The tells of a later reproduction.

Copies often reproduce a famous type but get the wear wrong — sharp where an original would be soft, or worn where nothing ever rubs. Weight is a second tell: electrotypes and tourist casts often feel too light or too heavy for their size.

Cast copies can carry the porosity of a mold taken from an existing object, a seam where the original had none, and enamel or gilding that reads as too fresh. Under magnification, a copy of a struck coin shows soft, soapy lettering where the original was crisp.

Remember that copies age too. A Grand Tour souvenir or a Victorian museum electrotype is now a genuinely old object with honest wear — old enough to fool, and sometimes collectable in its own right.

When the form says one century and the wear, material, or technique says another, record it as “after” that type, and explain your reasoning in the record.

From the guide library inside Collectors Catalogues, a free app for cataloguing antiques and finds with honest, museum-grade records.

More on skills

Reading patina — What surface color tells you — and doesn’t.

Spotting casting seams — How an object was made narrows its date.

General signs of a reproduction — What later copies get wrong.

Reading hallmarks and maker marks — A punched paper trail.

Weighing and the density test — Mass tells on fakes.

Using UV and magnification — Seeing what the eye misses.

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