The coins minted after the fall of Julius Caesar have become the reason for the fall of yet another man in 2023. Richard Beale, the owner and managing director of Roma Numismatics, a London-based auction house dealing in ancient coins, was arrested. The director was allegedly falsifying the ownership history of old coins, including one multimillion-dollar coin, “Eid Mar” (Ides of March), commemorating the assassination of Julius Caesar (minted in 42 BC.) In 2020, the Eid Mar was sold for $4.2 billion after being authenticated, encapsulated, and graded MSΗ 5/5 – 3/5, Fine Style by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) and by Roma Numismatics Limited.
It is reported Beale teamed up with Italo Vecchi, an Italian coin dealer working at Roma Numismatics as a consultant specialist, to fabricate the record of ownership for two coins that sold at auction in 2020. The 2000-year-old coin depicts the face of Caesar’s former friend Brutus responsible for the killing, and a Latin abbreviation for the Ides of March. Beale allegedly paid for false ownership history documents.
Christopher Martin, the Chairman of the British Numismatic Trade Association, told ARTnews, “He (Beale) was like a bolt of lightning. He appeared and made his mark in the market that he wasn’t brought up in. Within a year, he was selling coins worth millions of pounds. That doesn’t happen, but that’s what happened with him. Where did he come from? Nobody really knew.” Beale has been charged with Grand Larceny in the First Degree and Second Degree, Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the First Degree and Second Degree, Conspiracy in the Fourth Degree, and Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree.
