Uproar in auction circles: the historically most expensive aureus EID MAR is a fraud!

When the unique golden aureus EID MAR was auctioned for $4.2 million in October 2020, a new world record was set. Few would have guessed at the time that the coin had been stolen from Greece and the owner of renowned London auction house Roma Numismatics would be arrested and charged with theft, possession of stolen property, conspiracy and fraud.

The coin was one of three surviving gold specimens struck by Brutus in 42 AD as a commemoration of the assassination of Caesar. There are 85 known EID MAR denarii in silver, these are also very rare and desirable, however this aureus has never been published before and is by far the best preserved of the others. That is why the auction attracted the attention of the numismatic world.

The CEO of Roma Numismatics, Richard Beale, claimed at the time that the coin's provenance was as impeccable as its condition. According to him, the ownership history goes back centuries. However, it was a lie. The so-called "documented history" was fabricated directly by Beale in collaboration with coin expert and Italian coin finder Vecchi. Together, they had previously tried to sell the coin at the 2015 International Numismatic Auction in New York, but at the time they only had a ridiculously executed certificate of ownership and no one showed interest.

Beale and Vecchi later "procured" deeds "confirming" the provenance. Coupled with the authentication certification from Numismatic Guaranty Corporation, the EID MAR aureus could have sold as the most expensive ancient coin auctioned. And this was apparently not Richard Beale's only scam: the house of cards began to collapse in 2022 when Beale attempted to sell five coins that had been looted from Gaza. This cast suspicion on all of his dealings, which is why US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) began investigating the sale of the gold EID MAR in cooperation with several foreign law enforcement agencies and institutions.

It was confirmed that Beale had paid a forger to falsify his ownership history. One of the informants stated that Beale offered him $107,000 to produce the forged documents. The EID MAR coin was seized in February from an unknown location and to an unknown person; already on Tuesday, March 21, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office officially repatriated the aureus, along with 28 other looted items, to Greece.

The oldest object returned is a set of carved figurines from the late Neolithic period (5000-3500 BC). It depicts an entire family and has been valued at $3 million. Investigations found that the set was stolen from the island of Euboia and transported via Switzerland to the private collection of collector and philanthropist Shelby White. She loaned the figures to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2000, where they remained on display until March of this year, when federal authorities seized them.

Details of other thefts have not been released, only brief info on illegal digs in Macedonia, Epirus, central Greece, the Cyclades and Crete. The total value of the recovered artifacts exceeds $20 million.

Roman Nemec

Sources: manhattanda.org, thehistoryblog.com, ekathimerini.com

The most expensive EID MAR in history had a fake origin

Repatriated items

Repatriated objects on display at the Greek Embassy in New York

File to be returned

Neolithic family