BECKER RESTRIKES, A substantial collection of Becker restrikes. 19th century. Two hundred ninety-nine (299) pieces. Struck sometime after 1830. As made.

CNG Feature Auction 132
Lot: 1123. Estimated: $ 10 000

Electrotypes & Reproductions, White Metal

Sold For $ 41 250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Go to Live

BECKER RESTRIKES, A substantial collection of Becker restrikes. 19th century. Two hundred ninety-nine (299) pieces. Struck sometime after 1830. This collection includes a significant number of the known and extant dies of Becker’s work – 299 specimens of a total of 363 known – with a couple of duplicates. While most of his numbers are present in this collection, the cataloger has included those numbers that are missing, for the sake of completeness. Also included is a shekel of Tyre, dated CY 10 (117/6 BC), possibly by Peter Rosa (cf. DCA-Tyre 960; for rev.). This collection includes specimens of the following Hill, Becker numbers:

1-13 // 14 // 16-18/20 // 19 //// 20/18 // 22 // 23 // 27-32 // 34-35 // 36 (two examples) // 37-39 // 42 // 49 (two examples) // 50 // 51 (two examples) // 52-62 // 64-68 // 70-75 // 82 // 83 // 85-91 // 93 // 94 // 96 // 99-101 // 103 // 104-106 // 107-126 // 129 // 133-148 // 149b // 151-154 // 156-200 // 202-237 // 239 // 240 // 244 // 245 // 247 // 248-252 // 255-258 // 260 // 262 // 264 // 266-286 // 288-291/290 // 295-298 // 300-321 // 323 // 324 // 331-333 // 335 // 336 // 337 // 342 // 343 // 345 // 346 // 349 // 359.

Missing from this collection are specimens of the following Hill, Becker numbers:

15 // 24-26 // 33 // 40 // 63 // 69 // 76-81 // 82 // 91 // 97 // // 98 /// 102 // 105a // 149a // 155 // 201 // 238 // 241-243 // 246 // 253 // 254 // 259 // 261 // 263 // 265 // 287 // 292-294 // 299 // 322 // 325-330 // 334 // 338-341 // 344 // 347 // 348 // 350 // 351 // 353-358. As made. A near complete set. As sizeable an offering as CNG has presented since Triton X.

From the England/McFadden Counterfeit Collection.

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 an 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 where 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.

The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 132 lots will be determined at the live online sale that will be held on 18-19 May 2026.

CNG Feature Auction 132 – Session Four – Lot 889-1124 will be held Tuesday afternoon, 19 May 2026 beginning at 2:00 PM ET.

Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.

We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.