EXAMINING THE AUTHENCITY OF THAI BUDDHIST AMULETS
With imitation pieces constantly being produced, and the high number and high quality of imitation pieces circulating for popular amulets, identifying genuine pieces from imitation pieces becomes a skill and a challenge to collectors. Examining the authencity of amulets becomes easier if some background knowledge regarding the amulets are known, the background knowledge of the amulets will provide invaluable aid to the collector in identification of an amulet and the identification of authentic pieces. Gather and consider this informations:
THE FACTORS CAUSING IMITATION PIECES TO BE PRODUCED
Popularity of the amulet
Value of the amulet
Rarity, number of pieces made for the amulet
Popularity/demand, value, and rarity are the three determining factors of whether an amulet will be faked, and imitation pieces be produced. Knowing the popularity/demand, and price/value of the amulet, rarity of the amulet and the popularity of the monk/temple making the amulet will give an general idea of the possiblity of imitation pieces being created for the amulet, and it will also suggest the quality of imitation pieces being created.
When a particular amulet is popular and in demand, it's not uncommon to have imitation pieces circulating in the market, there isn't much reason to produce imitations for unpopular amulets. Value of the particular amulet is important consideration, producing high quality imitation pieces may not be easy and may not worth the cost if the authentic pieces are not expensive in the first place. The market demand and popularity of the amulet, however, is the most important factor causing imitation pieces to be produced. It is more profitable to produce amulets of high market demand, even though the original authentical pieces may not be expensive at all, because demand makes them more saleable and liquidifable. The very expensive pieces may not always be in high market demand, because not all collectors are willing to spend such money.
NUMBER OF DIFFERENT MATERIAL AND MOULD
Types of different materials used for the same amulet
Number of different moulds used for the same amulet
The same amulet may had also been produced in different materials, some are more expensive, some are cheaper, some are rarer. There are usually differences in the number of pieces made for different materials, such as gold, silver, navaloha, and bronze for medal amulets. An particular amulet may have been produced out from several different moulds, they may all look alike in general, but in detail there are some differences and some moulds are more popular (Blok Niyom) are will be more expensive. There might be popular moulds (Blok Niyom), director moulds (Blok Kamakan), special mould (Blok Pisit). These are generally more popular.
REMADE BATCH AND COMMEMORATIVE BATCH
Existance of any remade batch/commemorative batch
Differences between original batch and remade batches
When a particular amulet is popular, it's also not uncommon that remake batches, or commemorative batches will be made. Remade batches and commemorative batchs may look alike with the original batch, and may even easily be mistaken for the original batch if one have no knowledge of the whether remake/commemorative batches exists and what are the differences between the original batch. Know what you are paying for.
After gathering and considering the above mentioned informations, examine the actual amulets physically. In the next following two articles, I can only provide a general overview, not all points mentioned will be applicable, since every type of amulets are different, and every piece are different in some way or another.
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