13 mm diameter, 0.6 g, silver Obverse Consacrated Moldavian Coat of Arms : urus head bearing a five ray star between its horns, the uneven ray pointing up, waning crescent at left and five petal rose at right (heraldic positioning).	Reverse Coat of arms of the Muşatin family(?): shield split vertically; three bars inside field one, five fleurs-de-lis disposed 2-2-1 inside field two; partially overimposed on the shield an urus head between waning crescent at left and five petal rose at right. A mint ensign I (from Iaşi?) on the left.

We display on this page a recent, very well manufactured fake. For a sufficiently long time we, the authors of the site, ourselves deemed the piece to be authentic, so we appologize for unintendedly misleading of perhaps many visitors. Two ideas are to be stressed here. The fakes will still be published on Romanian coins because they hold information about the originals (that are very rare, indeed) or at least their sides and because, being somehow often found on the market, several other collectors might also fall prey to these forgeries.

On the next pages you will find a few other fakes manufactured in the same manner as this supposedly half gros from Alexander the Good of Moldavia. The sides were independently created through galvanoplasty and then forced together (with more or less craftsmanship), allowing though, usually, a black, separating surface between the two to be noticed. In this case but also in some others, the fake was eventually filed on the edge (visible also on the pictures), so that the acquisitor to think the coin underwent the operation hundreds of years ago just for some silver to be stolen.

The expertise for the Romanian medieval coins on Romanian coins was generously made by Mr. Bogdan Costin, specialist in medieval Romanian coinage.

We will still display the info this page had before the expertise.

Alexander the Good - Alexandru cel Bun - (grandfather of Stephen the Great and the Holy) ruled over Moldavia between 1400 and 1432.

During the previous and later reigns and even during the reign of Alexander the Good, the Moldavian coat of arms representations have oscillated: five or six ray star, uneven ray pointing upwards or downwards, the moon and the rose placed the other way around. We could deem this coin more then representative for Romanian heraldry and for the period.

The Bible of Romanian Numismatics, Monede şi bancnote româneşti by George Buzdugan, Octavian Luchian and Constantin Oprescu (1976), is not aware of this variant. At quote 410a there is an ensignless coin, having the uneven ray pointing downwards, but identical in all other details. Also, at quote 412 there is another half gros coin bearing seven fleurs-de-lis on the shield, and ensign I at left (on reverse), struck in bronze. We can hence either deduce it is another, unknown up to know, Moldavian coin presented on this page or it is a fraud against collectors, but a well documented and excellently manufactured fraud. We should remember that many medieval Romanian coins (issued by Moldavia and Walachia especially) are known in one or but few pieces and new types are discovered even today. Help from other collectors is welcome.