Through Writing Caen
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“Initially, it was just a hobby”. This is what Bertrand * (66 years old) declared, Thursday, January 6, 2022, to the magistrates of the criminal court of Caen (Calvados) who judged him for “counterfeiting of currency having had legal tender”, as well as for “swindle”. François * (48 years old) was tried for “complicity in counterfeiting”. Both were placed under judicial supervision.
A coin estimated at 200,000 euros
In October 2019, Bertrand asked that a Caen university professor appraise a coin dating back to Roman times bearing the image of the son of a Roman general. The expert authenticates it, declaring that it could be worth 200,000 euros. The man says he acquired it in Ivory Coast, where he lives.
Following this expertise, an anonymous denunciation will trigger an investigation. Bertrand is in possession of three identical documents. So he admits having had them made by François. He explains that from research carried out on the internet, he asked the latter, an engraver in the Bouches-du-Rhône, to reproduce the pieces from photos. Bertrand specifies:
I knew he was working well, meticulously. I had no particular project, it was experiments, I wanted to know how far we could go.
“I am a breeder so I make reproductions”
He claims to have not sold any. As for François, he recognizes his participation without knowing what Bertrand wanted to do with it. “I work with museums for reconstructions, with collectors. I am a breeder so I do reproductions. Bertrand was a client ”.
The prosecutor, in his requisitions, ironically:
He wanted to turn gold into silver! At the time, many Romans had coins engraved with their effigy. There was no legal tender, the value was the weight of the gold. It was the Facebook profile of the time … This is Quintus Labinus, son of General Titus Labinus.
Conditional prison
François was released, but the dies (the coins used to make coins) were confiscated. Bertrand, himself, is convicted of fraud and receives a 12-month suspended prison sentence and a 5-year ban on eligibility. He is released for forgery.
* Loan names.
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