Received these two Transmute Artifacts recently. They both feel like real Antiquities cards. One is quite a bit darker than the other. Both have identical light test. Is this a normal variant or are one/both of these fakes? Hopefully these pics are detailed enough. Thanks!
EDIT: The light test and black light test are identical to other antiquities cards I own. I think the consensus so far is that the dark blue card is real. Is this just a rare variant?
When I give my opinion, I make it a point to be honest about what I know and what I don't know.
The darker transmute artifact is suspect to me. The rosette pattern looks ok. different from the lighter tone, but still reasonable from what I know.
But I have never seen any antiquities card have that color tone. It honestly looks like ice age or fallen empires.
I started playing magic during that era, and I have seen countless legends, antiquities, revised, etc. That blue tone on the darker card is one I immediately recognize. Wizards started using that tone in fallen empires. That blue color is not from beta, unlimited, or revised. did a quick check and apparently fallen empires came out in November 1994.
So it's at least theoretically possible that Antiquities, which came out in march 94, got hit with a late print run that used the same ink by carta mundi they used for Fallen Empires.
But as you as clearly see, the light blue transmute artifact and the dark blue one are NOT the same. Look at the way the t's are shaped in the title of the card. Look how much thicker the the lowercase t is in the light version compared with the dark version. Look at the black border style too.
Fallen Empire black borders do not look like black borders from Legends, the Dark, Antiquities. It's so fine a difference I can't really describe it. But the black border of cards of the 94 era were purer, and ever so slightly glossier. The dark of the fallen empires style transmute artifact is more matte, and feels color toned with the rest of the card.
I guess the fact that the transmute artifact was "forged" with a fallen empires printer process actually lends credibility that it is in fact real. After all when other printers attempt to forge a card, they dont use a fallen empires, ice age, or any other magic set process. They use an independent printer completely divorced from the magic print runs.
If I honestly had to give a decisive answer, I would have to conclude both are real even though they look very different.
Thank you so much for the response. What a fascinating history of early MTG printing that I didn’t know anything about! Does anyone else know whether Antiquities was printed in a separate print run as theorized above?
I just posted a few more images comparing the dark Transmute Artifact with a few other blue Antiquities cards in my collection.
For what it’s worth, I do see a dark Transmute Artifact selling on eBay. I also contacted the person that traded it to me (whom I find trustworthy and has traded me multiple p9 in the past), and he said he got them a long time ago before Chinese fakes were known to be in circulation. Doesn’t prove anything, but I think this is still useful information.
All I will say is that there is no official comprehensive book on oddities. Quite the contrary, I expect additional rarities and oddities to continue cropping up. I've never heard of a fallen empires style antiquities card, and I've been playing magic since 1994. But looking at your cards, that's what I see. And I don't think its impossible given the timing.
Years ago on this site I once asked about alpha cut unlimited cards. Even combined with what other people said here, and what was known on Magic librarities, no one had heard of them. People had heard of alpha cut 4th, ice age, and even revised, but not unlimited.
5 years later, about a month ago, Im cruising the high end magic groups on facebook, and what do I see low and behold---an alpha cut unlimited card sitting in a BGS holder. The guy selling didnt comment about it--but I looked at the corners and thought "that's exactly the same cut as my card"
Last week, someone posted two deserts graded by BGS that they had flagged with a different title. I was impressed. BGS identified at least two different printings of Desert in arabian nights. One with a "Cave" and one without. The different was literally a tiny dot in the middle of the painting.
Again I've been with magic for 24 years now and never heard of it.
What's more take a look at this. From the mothership Wizards.com posted an article in 2002 detailing the different versions of the same card in Arabian Nights. https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/versus-b-2002-08-08 You know what's not included in that list? The variation on desert that BGS flagged. Props to them really.
I think we're still discovering different printings and variations of new cards. I definitely don't believe we've found them all yet. Librarities has documented quite a few, but I wouldn't be surprised if fallen empires style antiquities is actually a thing.
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Received these two Transmute Artifacts recently. They both feel like real Antiquities cards. One is quite a bit darker than the other. Both have identical light test. Is this a normal variant or are one/both of these fakes? Hopefully these pics are detailed enough. Thanks!
EDIT: The light test and black light test are identical to other antiquities cards I own. I think the consensus so far is that the dark blue card is real. Is this just a rare variant?
The darker transmute artifact is suspect to me. The rosette pattern looks ok. different from the lighter tone, but still reasonable from what I know.
But I have never seen any antiquities card have that color tone. It honestly looks like ice age or fallen empires.
I started playing magic during that era, and I have seen countless legends, antiquities, revised, etc. That blue tone on the darker card is one I immediately recognize. Wizards started using that tone in fallen empires. That blue color is not from beta, unlimited, or revised. did a quick check and apparently fallen empires came out in November 1994.
So it's at least theoretically possible that Antiquities, which came out in march 94, got hit with a late print run that used the same ink by carta mundi they used for Fallen Empires.
But as you as clearly see, the light blue transmute artifact and the dark blue one are NOT the same. Look at the way the t's are shaped in the title of the card. Look how much thicker the the lowercase t is in the light version compared with the dark version. Look at the black border style too.
Fallen Empire black borders do not look like black borders from Legends, the Dark, Antiquities. It's so fine a difference I can't really describe it. But the black border of cards of the 94 era were purer, and ever so slightly glossier. The dark of the fallen empires style transmute artifact is more matte, and feels color toned with the rest of the card.
I guess the fact that the transmute artifact was "forged" with a fallen empires printer process actually lends credibility that it is in fact real. After all when other printers attempt to forge a card, they dont use a fallen empires, ice age, or any other magic set process. They use an independent printer completely divorced from the magic print runs.
If I honestly had to give a decisive answer, I would have to conclude both are real even though they look very different.
I just posted a few more images comparing the dark Transmute Artifact with a few other blue Antiquities cards in my collection.
https://imgur.com/a/PswfqnD
For what it’s worth, I do see a dark Transmute Artifact selling on eBay. I also contacted the person that traded it to me (whom I find trustworthy and has traded me multiple p9 in the past), and he said he got them a long time ago before Chinese fakes were known to be in circulation. Doesn’t prove anything, but I think this is still useful information.
Years ago on this site I once asked about alpha cut unlimited cards. Even combined with what other people said here, and what was known on Magic librarities, no one had heard of them. People had heard of alpha cut 4th, ice age, and even revised, but not unlimited.
5 years later, about a month ago, Im cruising the high end magic groups on facebook, and what do I see low and behold---an alpha cut unlimited card sitting in a BGS holder. The guy selling didnt comment about it--but I looked at the corners and thought "that's exactly the same cut as my card"
Last week, someone posted two deserts graded by BGS that they had flagged with a different title. I was impressed. BGS identified at least two different printings of Desert in arabian nights. One with a "Cave" and one without. The different was literally a tiny dot in the middle of the painting.
Again I've been with magic for 24 years now and never heard of it.
What's more take a look at this. From the mothership Wizards.com posted an article in 2002 detailing the different versions of the same card in Arabian Nights. https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/versus-b-2002-08-08 You know what's not included in that list? The variation on desert that BGS flagged. Props to them really.
I think we're still discovering different printings and variations of new cards. I definitely don't believe we've found them all yet. Librarities has documented quite a few, but I wouldn't be surprised if fallen empires style antiquities is actually a thing.