About 600 years ago people began to take a liking to antique coins. Gold and silver coins were even added to fine pottery or were worn as jewellery.

Coin-collecting potentates are reported to have spurred themselves on to perform glorious deeds at the sight of Roman Imperial coins. Scholars thought about the genealogy of ruling families and afterwards sought to own the series of coins, as complete as possible.

Naturally originals were rare. Great discoveries of Greek and Roman coins in the thousands were first made in the 19th and 20th centuries.

What could be done when there was a lack of genuine antique coins if a church dignitary, or history scholar wanted to own minted Caesars at any cost? Oportunists recognised the market gap and obtained minted imitations of those rarities or, if none were available, invented new ones.

Thus the works of Padua die cutter, Antonio Cavino, (1500 to 1570), became famous. He was a contemporary of the goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini, in papal service from time to time, and already knew how to work with the screw press. Their place of origin gave Cavino's imitations their name: Paduans. These medal-like products made of silver or bronze were much sought after in their day and today often fetch higher prices than the originals.

They are recognised as independent Renaissance works of art and are appreciated for their historical background.

Advised by the scholar Antonion Bassiano, the artist copied the old Imperial coins not only on account of his sheer enthusiasm for antique art, but also because he recognised a very lucrative business. Cavino did not go to as much trouble as real counterfeiters of later years to give his work the appearance of antiquity. Differences were not concealed. The metals used are conspicuously deviated, for example the use of silver instead of bronze, and he did not use the same inscription as the originals. Besides these flawed pieces, Cavino also created fantasy dies out of his own imagination.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whose collection of some 4000 coins and medals is preserved in Weimar, did not know that he also possessed imitations. "For which lover of old coins is it not a joy to collect Cavino's works in order to sharpen his feelings more and more for the originals on the deceptive imitation?" The writer was right. If you place the antique originals and the Paduans side by side, the differences are immediately obvious. The finish of the edge is more even in the 16th century than it was possible to achieve in old mints. There are differences in weight and deviations in size. Cavino did not have to go to great lengths, for which collector possessed original material for comparison at that time and was in a position to distinguish old from new?